


Darkland

by fickensteinn



Series: Darkland [1]
Category: Keanu Reeves - Fandom
Genre: Adult Themes, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Keanu Reeves - Freeform, Original Character(s), Sex, cursing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:27:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22836274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fickensteinn/pseuds/fickensteinn
Summary: Taiga Annika Kelo is a known crime fiction writer from Finland, whose Darkland -series has soared into international awareness in a degree that there is now a chance that her books might be turned into a TV -series. The main character of her books, Michael Darkland is an FBI agent who has to travel to Finland to work with two Swedish agents and one German agent in order to find one of the biggest crime bosses on the run and bring him to justice. Her biggest wishes for casting her series are about to come true…
Relationships: Keanu Reeves/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Darkland [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691047
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been playing with this idea for a while now and while I kinda don’t have more plot than obviously following the filming and production of her serie, I want this to be a slow burn love, not much drama, feel good series, not just for me but for you guys as well. I don’t write a lot of angst since I have it so much in my own personal life, so… I hope you guys will enjoy this as much as I know I’m going to. (And yes, I once again used my own dogs as Taiga’s dogs lol)
> 
> Italic text means it’s spoken in Finnish. After Finnish words or sentences, (the translation is right behind them like this).

[Taiga's Chinese Cresteds](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fhosting.photobucket.com%2Fimages%2Fv233%2Fvalorock%2F0%2F1a776074-f6e7-44f4-8c16-e3776b235336-original.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1920%26height%3D1080%26fit%3Dbounds&t=MjU0M2ZjMGY0NzJmZjVkNjAxNzg4YjA1ZjEwMGQzY2FjZGNlZjM0ZSxqdU12bEVWcg%3D%3D&b=t%3AGcGyL_LbAgLmgC6_vKGyXg&p=https%3A%2F%2Ffickensteinn.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F186608289908%2Fthe-dog-park&m=1)

\--

Taiga felt nauseous and lightheaded. She backed up until she felt her couch behind her legs and she crashed down on it, the hand holding her cellphone shaking and the other one in her hair.

 _“Tuomas, could- could you repeat what you just said?”_ Taiga let out an uneasy breath, as she tried to breath, even somehow.

 _“We got Peter Tägtgren! He agreed to play agent Hellgren and he even said he’ll talk to Stormare about his possible role, since Stormare is a huge fan of Darkland as well!”_ Tuomas spoke on the other end of the phone and Taiga felt like actually fainting now, and she had to lean forward, trying to steady her breathing.

 _“… Taiga?_ ” Tuomas asked after a moment of silence. 

_“I think I’m gonna be sick.”_ she said with a thick voice, hearing Tuomas chuckle compassionately. 

_“Breathe, breathe, this is so fucking sick!! Hey, hey, imagine Taiga, imagine - what if Stormare comes in too and he will talk to–”_

“ _Shut the fuck up or seriously, I will be sick._ ” Taiga interrupted her eager assistant and managed to breathe in and calm herself, even a little. When Taiga started to write Darkland, she knew from the beginning exactly how the four agents looked like in her head and real life as well. The Swedish agents Hellgren and Lönnroth were portrayed by Peter Tägtgren from the band Pain and the already well known actor Peter Stormare. The German agent looked like Till Lindemann, the singer of Rammstein. And Michael Darkland himself… Keanu Reeves. 

The fact that Tägtgren was in meant so much and it peaked her naive hope of having her dream cast in the series. That would be a fucking huge thing when it came to Finnish TV history, since the locales she uses in the books were in and around the small country villages of southern Finland, so that would mean that the scenes would be shot around those areas as well. 

She didn’t want to get too excited, the adult in her was already telling her how Till was going to be too busy with Rammstein and his own solo career and Keanu would have something else for sure. But still, she was excited. Tägtgren knew Stormare. They both knew Till. And Stormare also knew Keanu. 

Yeah, she was getting more excited by the second.

 _“Holy fuck!”_ she finally screamed, making Tuomas burst to laugh at the other end of the phone.

 _“That’s the spirit! Hey, I’ll email you the info and stuff and uuhh, you coming to Pasila tomorrow?”_ Tuomas asked, and with a deep sigh, Taiga managed to relax as the nauseating feeling started to fade. 

_“Yeah, yeah of course. See you tomorrow.”_ Taiga ended the call and let the hand holding her phone drop into her lap. For a while, Taiga just sat there and stared into nothingness, until she felt a light scratch on her arm by her older dog, Raivo. He had a habit of poking and scratching people when he wanted attention. Taiga started to smile and snagged the blond Chinese crested to her lap, making her younger dog, Torsti to jump on the couch as well.

 _“Mommy’s TV series might happen, you guys! Mommy might get to work with amazingly talented people who will make her books come alive, oh yesh!”_ she baby talked to her dogs, and while Torsti wagged his tail excitedly like he always did, Raivo didn’t seem to care and decided to show that with a huge yawn. She chuckled as she messed with Raivo’s blond hair. 

_“Should we celebrate this with a walk?”_ Taiga asked in a certain tone, making both of the dogs tilt their heads, and with an excited whine, Raivo jumped down from her lap as well as Torsti, and both of the dogs followed her as she walked towards the draught lobby.

After two weeks, it was official - they also got Peter Stormare in as the second Swedish agent. This had made the production team light up their engines with rocket fuel and the plans for the pre-production were on the go. Even with those two men this was already going to be one of the biggest productions in Finland to date. Now even the production were keeping their fingers crossed that by some miracle, they would get Lindemann and Reeves to join them. Or even one of them! If not, they would have to find new actors for the roles and Taiga really didn’t like the idea, even though she knew that it was most likely going to be the situation. 

Taiga was enjoying a lazy Saturday night at home, relaxing in the best way possible - sauna fresh, in her bed with a glass of white wine, her laptop and her dogs. She was in the middle of an episode of her current favorite Netflix series, when her Skype made a rare sound of a new added contact. First of all, she thought she had turned Skype off and who the heck would know her username? It was probably going to be just a bot, but she decided to check anyway. 

She paused the episode and clicked the program open. Seeing the username who had added her first made her frown but then snicker - KRGT-1. Psh, yeah right. She was already moving the cursor so she could block who ever was trying to mess with her, when that username instant messaged her. 

“hey!

dont block me please

i just spoke with peter

stormare i mean hehe”

Taiga stopped. No one, absolutely NO ONE except the small handful of people in the production, her assistant and few selected people from her book publishing agency knew about the series or that Peter Stormare had agreed to his Swedish agent role. Hell, not even Taiga’s mother knew that the series has almost gotten a green light! If this was someone she knew making fun of her, she would be absolutely furious. She clicked the writing area active and started typing.

“O…k? and?” and enter. Three little dots appeared to the lower edge of the screen telling her that who ever was on the other side of the screen was typing to her. 

“just want to make sure, this is taiga kelo, the author of darkland, right?” 

“yyyyeeeah, and you are?”

As an answer, she received a video call. Her heart was pounding a million miles an hour as she stared at her screen. Should she answer? At least then she would see who was messing, or at least trying to mess with her. Before she could decide, the call ended.

“sorry, i pressed the wrong button hehe. i’ll try again?”

“… sure” 

And another call. She gathered some of her duvet to cover her, even though she had her comfy black jammies on and moved the cursor to answer the call. When the video connected, all she saw was a nice looking private home balcony and what looked like a really nice sunny morning. Oh Jesus, was this one of those fucking pranking videos where something would soon pop on the screen trying to jump scare her? Letting out a sigh, she felt stupid and wiped her face with her hand, closing her eyes. When he started to hear distant talking, coming closer to the balcony, she opened her eyes and froze. 

“… over the next few weeks. Yeah, but hey, I have a video call going, I gotta go. Yeah, bye.” she watched between her fingers how Keanu fucking Reeves walked into the balcony holding a coffee mug and ended his phone call, lifting his eyes from the phone straight to his laptop and smiling, he walked to the table and pulled a chair to himself. 

“Hi! I’m so glad you decided to answer me.” he chuckled, and all Taiga could do was stare. Her hand moved to cover her mouth and she couldn’t believe this was happening. She was NOT skyping with Keanu Reeves, right?

“… no nyt on vitun tehokas face capture…” (well that’s a fucking powerful face capture) she murmured, making the man behind the screen burst to laugh.

“S-sorry, I didn’t understand everything, but in case you’re wondering, this is not a face capture. At least I hope so! I’m Keanu, by the way. Oh and uh, good morning!” he raised his coffee mug and brought it to his lips to take a sip. Then he frowned, like he suddenly seemed to realize that time zones existed. 

“Oh shit, it’s night there isn’t it? I hope I didn’t wake you?” he rushed, and Taiga forced herself to move, even so that she could grab her wine glass from her nightstand and take a long sip. 

“So…” Taiga breathed out, correcting the way she was sitting on her bed. “… you’re real? This is actually happening?”

Her question made Keanu’s smile even wider and he nodded, making a wave with his free hand and taking another sip of his coffee. 

“Hello.” he chuckled again. 

Voi Jeesuksen helvetin perkeleen perse. (<\- a whole lot of Finnish curse words that are hard to translate)

She was actually skyping with Keanu Reeves. After a huge mental slap to her face, she cleared her throat and brushed her fingers through her hair. 

“So um. Keanu.” she let out a nervous laugh. “What brings me the honor?”

“Well.” Keanu shuffled on his seat and soon a cigarette was between his fingers. 

“My good friend, Peter Stormare-” he lit his cigarette. “-told me about this excellent crime fiction book a few years ago. You may have heard of it, it’s called Darkland.” he grinned, and the sheer fact that Keanu said her book’s name made Taiga have chills all over her body. 

“Mmm yeah, it rings a bell.” she nodded, taking a sip of her wine. 

“So it doesn’t surprise you when I tell you that I own each part of your series, good.” Keanu took a long drag of his cig. And Taiga finished her wine. 

“Anyway. Peter called me last night and told me that he was going to be in the tv adaptation of the books, and that your production company was going to approach me for the role of Michael Darkland.” Keanu spoke, and Taiga gulped. Oh man, was this going to be the part where he will thank you for the offer and politely decline because of more bigger and important projects? It would be so like him to do it personally like this.

“I want in.” 

Taiga blinked and she had to shake her head. Did she just hear him right?

“Uuuuh what?” she let out another laugh, her voice clearly telling Keanu she didn’t quite believe him. Keanu smiled widely again, and leaned closer to his laptop. 

“I would be honored to play the role of Michael Darkland.” 

Taiga stared at him for a couple of seconds, lifted her finger in a manner that she asked him to wait for a moment, grabbed her pillow and shoved it against her face, screaming into the pillow as loud as she possibly could. She could hear how Keanu was laughing again, and just to be sure she got it all out, she let out another scream. Out of breath, she put the pillow away and turned better to face her laptop again. 

“Sorry, I had to get that out of my system.” Taiga chuckled, now much more relaxed, and Keanu had his hand covering his giggle. 

“Don’t worry, I get it. My people will be in touch with your people today, well, tomorrow for you guys.” he spoke, putting his cigarette out in an ashtray. 

“You have no idea how incredible this is to me Keanu. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart and soul.” Taiga managed at least to thank him, and Keanu waved his hand again. 

“It’s fine, I’m really pumped up to have this role. I’ve always thought that Darkland is a total bad ass and now I get to be him, yes!” his enthusiasm made Taiga smile so wide that her cheeks started to hurt.

“Hey uh, I meant to ask - is it okay if I dm or even call you directly once in a while if I have questions about Michael as a character? I totally understand if you’re too busy.” 

Who the hell would ever be so busy?!

“Hey, of course, day or night! And to finally answer your question, yes it is night here, but it’s only like eight thirty or something. And I’m out of wine.” she showed Keanu her empty wine glass, making him chuckle. 

“Oh no, the tragedy! But hey, this is awesome! I’ll talk to you soon, alright? And if you have any questions, comments or concerns, hit me up on Skype. I’ll try to answer as soon as possible. Talk to you later.” 

“Yeah, sure, okay. See you later.” and the video call ended. 

Just to be sure, Taiga shut her laptop completely before she took her cell phone and skipped to the kitchen so she could fill her wine glass. Tuomas was never going to believe her, but she didn’t care - they got Keanu Reeves in the main role! 

When Tuomas answered, Taiga finally let out all of her excitement, the shock of speaking with her favorite actor since forever - she screamed, she laughed, she danced, she cried, you named it. And thanks to that genuine reaction, Tuomas did believe her and joined her screaming and bouncing at the other end of the phone.

Keanu Reeves was going to come to Finland.


	2. Chapter 2

Maybe for a dozenth time, Taiga took water straight from the tap and spurted, trying to get the foul taste away from her mouth. This time, when she had heard that even Till Lindemann was in for the role of the German agent Müller, and it had finally sank in her brain that her series was going to have her absolute dream cast, her body decided to react by getting rid of her breakfast. Too bad it happened at Pasila, where she was meeting with her crew. 

The WC door was knocked softly.

 _“Taiga, is everything alright? Do you need an ambulance?”_ she could hear Tuomas ask, worry clear in his voice, and she sighed deeply. One more spurt, and she opened the door, wiping her mouth to a paper towel. 

_“If you have any xylitol gum, I think I’ll manage.”_ she let out a dry laugh, and Tuomas patting her shoulder in a comforting manner, they returned to the meeting room. Everyone lifted their heads when she entered the room. 

_“Feeling better?”_ Aleksi, the head of the production team asked, brows furrowed. 

_“Yeah, I’ll live.”_ Taiga said abruptly before sitting down on a chair next to a big office table, and gladly took the fresh mint flavored xylitol gum that Tuomas handed to her. 

_“Alright then!”_ Aleksi clapped his hands together. _“Now that casting stuff is done and we can start the auditions for extras, those are settled, we have another news, which uhh, which is kinda big.”_ Aleksi spoke and took the first paper form the pile in front of him.

 _“We received a word from Reeves’s people that he doesn’t accept any bigger pay than what Stormare is getting, which means that our production budget just got a, excuse my French, a big motherfucking bonus from that. I think that serves to get a round of applauses here.”_ Aleksi spoke and everyone in the room was clapping, Taiga grinning cunningly. She already knew that, since Keanu had told her that yesterday when they were skyping again. A part of his pay he was going to donate to the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation and to the new children’s hospital in Helsinki, but that was also a secret. 

After their first Skype call, both of them had dm’d one another every now and then, about the series and his role mostly. But when one day Keanu had sent her a picture of a cute dog he had met somewhere, she dared to send him a video of his dogs playing. And while they did talk about the series and his role of course, a lot of their messages and video calls started to be about something entirely else - music, movies, hobbies, family, nearly everything in life. At moments Taiga thought that Keanu was almost like… flirting with her? But that couldn’t be possible, right? Although, she was the worst at noticing flirting even if it slapped her across the face with a wet fish, or that’s what her best friend Petra always told her. 

One thing was for certain though, their sense of humour was absolutely carved from the same wood. They both understood their level of sarcasm, darker jokes and they both giggled to the same stupid puns and dad jokes. Okay, two things were certain - Taiga definitely was crushing on Keanu and hard. She knew it was going to be a painful and extremely lonely road that would eventually lead to a broken heart, but she was still going to make the most of it. Hell, she was lucky enough to be able to call him a friend of hers!

Thanks to the time zones, they had nearly made it a habit to Skype each other at a certain time. It was around eight o’clock at evening for Taiga and it was morning for Keanu and she joined him for a morning coffee. 

“I still can’t get over the fact that you’re drinking coffee this late.” Keanu grinned and Taiga shrugged her shoulders. 

“I doesn’t affect me anymore I think, my blood veins should be called coffee veins. Or beer veins.” she mumbled the last part into her cup before taking a sip and Keanu chuckled. 

“Aw man! I’m so ready for this whole shooting to start, I’ve been reading the books over and over and getting into the mindset and-” he looked around in his balcony, and like always, sun was shining. “-it’s too bright in here!” Keanu whined, making Taiga giggle. 

“Trust me, during the winter you’ll miss that California weather. It will get really dark, cold, grey and depressing in here.” she shuffled on her bed and moved her tabled over her duvet covered legs. It was Keanu’s turn to shrug his shoulders.

“Sounds a lot like a basic Canadian winter to me.” 

“Well yeah, but if we’re unlucky, we’re most likely going to have what we call a black winter, where we get no snow at all here in the south! I hate that, especially during December. I’m considering of spending the holidays at my cabin at Sodankylä. Which is in Lapland. At least I’d have snow!” you spoke and Keanu was listening to you, smiling all the way. 

“Tell me more about your cabin?” he asked, and a excited, almost little girly smile spread on your face. 

“Okay, so! It’s built by my dad when he was younger, it’s like a 20 minute drive away from the town and it’s quite close to this lake called Vaalajärvi, it’s surrounded by forest, on the opposite side of the road there’s a reindeer farm and… Oh, the cabin itself is very open, it’s a two story cabin and it doesn’t have any rooms, you know what I mean? Of course, the bathroom and sauna are a separate room, but the door is on the outside, so you need to step out in order to get there.” Taiga told him, smiling and using her free hand while speaking to spice up her words, something she didn’t even realize she did, and her enthusiasm made Keanu smile even more. 

“That sounds wonderful, really. My sister is taking our mother to Hawaii for holidays, and depending on the shootings, I’m either going there or…” Keanu lifted his hand to rub on his beard. 

“… spending the holidays in Finland doesn’t sound bad at all.” was it weird that every time when Keanu said her country’s name she got chills? 

“Have you ever eaten reindeer meat?” Taiga drank her coffee.

“I have tasted caribou, yes, but it’s been like… Gosh, I don’t even remember when I’ve last had that.” he scratched the back of his head which Taiga had noticed he often did when he was trying to remember something. 

“That’s the thing - they’re not caribou. Our reindeers are their own subspecies native to us. I think the accurate name is Finnish forest reindeer or something. And ohmygod, they taste divine.” Taiga rolled her eyes as she remembered the last time her mom had made her famous reindeer fry. Taiga had all the intention to ask her mom to do it while Keanu was in Finland. 

“Another thing to add to my Finnish bucket list, then. Urgh! I just want to be there already!” Keanu leaned his head back and huffed. She would like that very much as well. Keanu lifted his head and checked how much coffee he had left. 

“I’m getting more coffee, excuse me.” always so polite. She let out a silent sigh as she watched him walk back in from the balcony. They had spoken about how and where Keanu was going to stay during filming the parts shot close to her village and the off time, and she did have a two story house… She mainly lived in the upstairs since the downstairs was more for guests, and before she renovated it, it was where her grandma used to live. The thought of having Keanu living downstairs every now and then… yes please? He could use the small gym room and-

“Taiga?” she broke out from her thoughts, blinking her eyes at Keanu who had returned and was holding his coffee mug partly over his face, with a grin that made her have hot chills all over her body. He nodded down, and Taiga looked down just to notice that her pajama top was showing a tad more than it should be. 

“Voi vittu!” (Oh fuck!) Taiga yelped and tugged her duvet over her chest, making the tablet fly all over her bed. 

“Voi vitun vitun vittu!” (Oh fucking fucking fuck!) she cursed and could hear Keanu laughing. She grabbed the tabled and placed it into her lap again, covering her face with her hand.

“I am SO sorry, I was not meaning to flash you like that! Can I die of embarrassment now please?” she let out a sheepish laugh, her cheeks on FIRE. Keanu was still chuckling and the look on his face was just making the blush on her cheeks even deeper. She drank the last drops of her coffee and placed the mug to her nightstand, rubbing her face with both of her hands now.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it! I didn’t mind at all, actually…” Keanu’s words made Taiga take a peek of him between her fingers, and the way he arched his dark brow was making Taiga feel lightheaded. Okay, that was undeniably flirting. She let her hands drop from her face, and she moved so she was laying on her stomach and put the tablet on front of her, so she could lean on her elbows. Even though her top was now on place, she still had a nice cleavage. And she clearly saw how Keanu’s eyes took a quick glance of her. 

“Didn’t mind, huh? I wanna see something too.” she answered and Keanu moved a bit in his chair. 

“Oh yeah? Like what?” he leaned forward and his fingers played with his coffee mug, the tone in his voice playful. And darn suggestive. Taiga bit her lower lip, playing with her lip piercing and watched the amazingly gorgeous man on her screen waiting for her answer. 

“… flex your bicep for me?” the softness of her voice almost surprised herself as well, and she watched as Keanu swallowed harshly, his adam’s apple moving. He opened his black zipped hoodie and Taiga smirked when she saw his grey Arch t-shirt. Clearly teasing her, he fiddled his fingers before curling his hand into a fist, making his knuckles crack and slowly, as he stared to the screen under his brow, he started to flex his arm. Taiga’s eyes ate it all up as she watched mesmerized how the muscles in his arm moved and fffuck, the sight of his bicep made pure lust fire up inside her. She didn’t even realize that she had moaned for the sight. 

“Fuuuck…” she sighted, her throat feeling dry. With a toothy grin, Keanu stopped and put his hoodie back on, not zipping it up. 

“Are we even now?” he asked, Taiga giving him a are your really asking- kind of look. 

“Not by a long shot - I think I need to take a cold shower.” she murmured, making Keanu chuckle. His cell made a sound and he checked it, pushing the phone back to his pocket. 

“As much as I’d want to chat more with you Taiga, I’m afraid duty calls. You go and have that shower. And be sure to enjoy it.” he winked his eye, Taiga snickering. 

“Fuuuck youuu.” she smiled, shaking her head as she watched Keanu move even closer to his tab. 

“Fuck you? Gladly.” a wide grin, and he ended the video call. Taiga was frozen in place, trying to process what Keanu had just said. His words echoed in her head, seeing his grin in her mind… she pushed the tablet aside and moved to reach for her nightstand, and her adult toy box inside it. Fingers were not going to be enough this time!

On the other side of the screen, Keanu leaned back in his chair and pushed his fingers into his hair, letting out a heavy breath. That escalated quickly. And he didn’t mind it. One moan, that one soft moan from Taiga and he was rock hard in his jeans. She had finally flirted back to her, so he had the courage to keep his hopes a little more up. He absolutely didn’t plan to fall for her, but hey, when did hearts plan their actions?

She was intelligent, hilarious, had this mysterious aura he just couldn’t put his finger on, an amazing writer and had a passion and curiousness for life, her sense of humour matching his to a tee. And she was hot. So god damn hot. He didn’t usually care if people had tattoos or piercings or not, but her tattooed arms full of pictures about of her favourite books, music and movies and that ring piercing on her lip just suited her so fucking well. Keanu closed his eyes and he felt his member twitch in his jeans when he imagined how wild that piercing would feel when her mouth would be on his–

His cell phone rang again, and he texted to his friend that he would be down in a minute. Taking care of his raging hard on wouldn’t take much longer than that if he would think of her… 

Next night, Taiga was already in bed waiting for Keanus Skype call, and since it was Friday, she had a beer with her. His words from yesterday had been stuck in her head the whole day and she really couldn’t concentrate at all during her crew meetings. Gladly most of them believed her when she said she was just so excited that she couldn’t sleep very well. 

As soon as Keanu called her, she swiped the tablet screen to answer and the couple of seconds it took for the videos to connect, her heart started to race. She was expecting to see Keanu sitting in his balcony with a cup of coffee like always, but when the video connected, it showed him laying in his bed, somewhat covered by his duvet and he was shirtless, drying his hair to a black towel.

“Hey, sorry I’m a bit late, I just took a shower.” Keanu smiled, his hair being wild after the towel drying, and Taiga swallowed harshly. 

“I cannn see that…” she took a sip of his beer.

“Also, sorry I’m not dressed. I’ll put on a shirt.” he grinned and Taiga swallowed her beer.

“I don’t mind.” she managed to grin as well, and the look on Keanu’s eyes was straight from her wet dreams and he threw the towel away, leaning his head to his hand as he laid on his side on the bed. Almost like he did it on purpose, since it emphasized his bicep very nicely.

“What are you drinkin’, beautiful?” Keanu asked, trying the ice with a stick by calling her that, and Taiga gave her a lopsided grin. 

“I’m sauna fresh with my hair being a mess and no make up.” she meant her words as an objection, but it only made Keanu nod. 

“Exactly. Beautiful.” he purred, and Taiga could feel herself blushing. 

“Ahem, um, anyway, I’m drinking Christmas beer!” she smiled and Keanu arched his brow.

“Christmas beer? It’s not even November yet." 

"Oh shut up, they’re delicious, you’ll know when you finally drag your gorgeous ass to Finland.” she took another sip and watched as the grin on Keanus lips got wider. God damn he looked way too good.

“You have a gorgeous ass.” Keanu replied, and Taiga snickered.

“You haven’t even seen my ass!” she laughed and Keanu shuffled on his bed.

“Yes I have! I’ve been watching your interviews from YouTube. It looks fantastic in those black jeans you so often wear.” he said playfully and she waved her hand. 

“Let’s agree we both have gorgeous asses, then.” Taiga finished her beer and straight opened a new one.

“Can’t wait to see yours in person though. I need to keep my hands busy.” he brushed his hair off his face, and Taiga played with her lip piercing again, both of them falling silent.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Keanu continued and she nodded. He moved closer to his tablet.

“I think I have a crush on you.” he whispered and Taiga almost dropped her beer can. Her lips opened with amazement and she quickly put her beer away, taking her own tablet closer to her.

“Guess what?” Taiga whispered, her eyes wide. 

“What?”

“I know I have a crush on you, too." 

Keanu watched her and she could actually see him blushing, and he apparently felt it too, since he buried his face into his pillow and let out a giggle, like he was a school boy. That made Taiga giggle as well, and she felt like she could fly within the stars right now, her heart beating so fast. 

"How did this happen?” Taiga let out a shy laugh, Keanu lifting his head from his pillow. 

“Does it matter? I’m happy it happened.” Keanu smiled, his smile making her smile wider as well.

“Me too, one hundred percent. Especially when I thought that… well.” she dropped her eyes to her hands.

“That I would only see you as a friend?” Keanu finished her sentence and she nodded her head a few times, playing with her lip piercing. The look in Keanu’s eyes caused her to swallow a moan. He shook his head.

“Impossible.” his tone was softer and deeper, causing hot shivers all over Taiga’s body.

“Now I can’t wait for the second week of November.” she sighed and Keanu blinked a couple of times, his smile turning softer.

“What if I come there next week?" 

Taiga perked up and shifted in place, excitement growing inside her.

"Go on?" 

Keanu sat up on his bed, and moved his duvet with him, but Taiga did realize he was not only shirtless, but actually butt naked under the covers. 

"I mean - to acquaint myself with the surroundings, get myself into the right mindset, to get to know the crew, get some things done before the shootings start…” he spoke and lifted his eyes on the camera, so it actually felt like he was looking straight into your eyes.

“… and spend time with you. Without the rush that comes with the filming." 

Taiga swallowed and nodded her head. 

"Yeah… yeah! I’d like that very, very much.” her answer made Keanu beam with excitement.

“Does this mean we’ll really see each others next week?” Taiga was starting to get very excited as well.

“Monday. I’ll be there on Monday." 

Taiga squeaked and clapped her hands together, hearing how Keanu chuckled. 

"You don’t need to worry, my people will take of everything. I will inform you as soon as I know the schedule.” Keanu spoke and Taiga jumped on her place while sitting.

“Oh my gosh, we’re gonna meet on Monday! Just a warning, I’m going to give you the biggest hug ever.” Taiga chuckled and Keanu smirked playfully.

“Just a warning - I’m going to kiss you.” Keanu said deeply and Taiga couldn’t held back a silent moan. 

“Especially if you make sounds like that.” he continued, and Taiga shifted on the bed again.

“I’m going to need another cold shower, thanks a lot, mister.” Taiga tried to sound like she was scolding him, which made Keanu look down on himself. He lifted his darkened eyes back to her.

“You’re not the only one, baby. I’ll text you later.” he winked his eye and she could see his sleazy grin before he ended the video call. 

Taiga stared at her tablet mouth open, then she grabbed a pillow and screamed into it, feeling her excitement fly through the roof. As well as her arousal.

She slammed the pillow back to her bed and let out a deep, frustrated grunt.

“Vittu sitä miestä.” (Fuck that man) she breathed heavily, and menacingly. How the hell could she keep her hand off of him on Monday?! As soon as her crew would hear him arriving early, she knew she wouldn’t be the only one wanting to be at the airport for his arrival. 

She had never ever in her life wishing it to be Monday already!


	3. Chapter 3

Like Taiga had told her countless times during their friendship, Petra was a angel sent straight from heaven. The whole Sunday she and Petra cleaned her two story house so it would be in perfect condition for Monday, and as a thanks Taiga had made Petra a full dinner and they had a long, relaxing sauna after the whole ordeal. With a cider, or two. Petra and her mother were the only ones who knew outside of her crew that Keanu was arriving tomorrow and not week later. Taiga couldn’t remember was she ever in her life been this nervous. Maybe when they published the first part of Darkland? No, this went over even that. 

Around 5 pm on Monday, Taiga, Tuomas, Aleksi and few others from the production team were sitting in the small VIP arrival lounge that was its own separate building from the main terminals and as such, way more private. Both of Taigas legs were fidgeting up and down as she sat on the couch, her elbows leaning on her knees and she had to do her best so she wouldn’t bite her short black nails even shorter. Sitting next to her, Tuomas was calm as ever, browsing his phone, until he took a peek at Taiga and arched his brow.

 _“You seriously can’t be that nervous?”_ he let out a laugh and Taiga shot him a glare. 

_“Oh, can’t I? Not only he’s been my wet dream and favorite actor since middle school and now he’s coming to Finland, staying with me for at least the two first weeks of his stay and he’s one of the main stars of the tv show based on my books? Yeah, I AM this nervous, and you’re not helping!”_ she hissed the last part through her teeth and Tuomas rolled her eyes, almost a big brother like smile on his face. Aleksi was also trying to hide his smile when she listened to Taiga.

 _“I love how you said wet dream first instead of favorite actor.”_ he snickered, and chuckled when Taiga punched his arm with her fist. 

The door the the backside opened, and airport employee who had taken them to the arrival lounge peaked his head in and Taiga’s heart skipped a beat. 

_“He’s here.”_

Taiga shot up from the couch and ran to the door, stepping outside into the dark, cold drizzle hitting her face instantly, her heart pounding in her head and her eyes searched for him and- oh my God. 

Keanu was talking with the pilot as they were walking closer, and Taiga could feel how breathing started to feel like an impossible task. He was wearing taupe colored suede shoes, black jeans with a waxed finish, dark brown suede jacket and a red-grey scarf loosely around his neck. On his other shoulder he carried a traveling bag, the cold wind trying to make a mess of his raven hair that flowed around freely. 

When he lifted his eyes and noticed her, Taiga gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. She could actually feel her eyes watering and her hands shook visibly. Keanu started to smile and he dropped his traveling bag, handing it to the pilot as he was offering to take it. Taiga couldn’t control herself as she started to run towards him, her smile so wide it hurt her face and Keanu opened his arms, ready to catch her. She couldn’t held back a scream of pure joy and excitement as she lunged herself to him, Keanu laughing and grabbing her, spinning her around a couple of times and they hugged each others tightly.

“Hi.” Keanu chuckled into her hair, and Taiga couldn’t stop giggling, overwhelmed by the sudden wave of shyness she tried her best to shake off, her head pushed against his chest. 

“You’re here, you’re actually here ohmygod you’re here!” Taiga squealed, hugging Keanu even tighter and he pretended to be choking a bit, not helping her giggling fit at all. Keanu brought his warm, large hand to her face as he tried to lift it to see her better, but as soon as Taiga even saw a glimpse of his face this close, she shied away and covered her face with her own hand.

“Hey, you’ve never been this shy of me during our video calls?” Keanu spoke softly, and gave the pilot a quick nod when he offered to take his traveling bag to the VIP arrival lounge. 

“I know, I know! I’m not usually this shy!” Taiga shook her head, and froze in place when Keanu cupped her face with both his hands and instead of trying to lift her face, he knelt down just enough so he could finally see her face. When their eyes connected, Taiga felt like the world disappeared around them, even the wind and the drizzle seemed to pause in her head as she looked into those warm, soft chocolate eyes.

“There you are.” Keanu whispered, and like in slow motion, he brought his face closer and Taiga’s eyes fluttered shut, her heart skipping again when she felt Keanu giving her the most softest kiss of her life. Taiga’s hands moved to wrap around his neck and they kissed again, more deeply and as Keanu’s arms wrapped around her body, pulling her against him, she felt lightheaded. And her body was on fire. 

After a few kisses, they broke off and Taiga had to keep her eyes shut for a moment, she actually felt like she could faint. 

“At least you’re not shaking anymore.” Keanu’s tone had that lovely playfulness, and Taiga giggled, opening her eyes and actually being able to look at him, blushing hard.

“No, but instead I think I’m melting.” she smiled, and got shivers. Not hot by some miracle, but cold ones. 

“And freezing. Let’s go inside.” Keanu took her hand and together they walked the remaining walk to the private building. 

After everyone had introduced themselves, they sat down for the while they waited for their private car and Aleksi had the time of his life as he explained all sorts of thing to Keanu which were already prepared for him production wize, which were almost done and which were still in the making. While Keanu was listening to Aleksi, Taiga noticed how he every now and then took a quick look in her direction, a grin dancing on his lips, when she was sitting with Tuomas who finally was also excited. 

_“Sssooo, you guys are having a thing?”_ Tuomas whispered so silently that only Taiga could hear, and she nearly spat out her coffee and gave Tuomas a look that demanded an explanation, stat!  
  
_“I was wondering how long you were going to hug him for and I took a peek outside, just to see you two, um… smooching. Like long lost lovers.”_ Tuomas was trying to keep his face straight, but after seeing how badly Taiga was blushing, he couldn’t help a small giggle. 

_“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. Cross my heart.”_ Tuomas nodded, and Taiga inhaled deeply.

 _“You better or I make you a eunuch.”_ Taiga growled silently, and Tuomas knew her well enough to know she was dead serious. 

As their ride finally arrived, Tuomas and Aleksi joined Taiga and Keanu in the back as Aleksi would drop off in Helsinki and Tuomas would travel with them to Taiga’s home village outside Helsinki metropolitan area. When they dropped off Aleksi, Tuomas changed his seat from the back to the front with the driver, since he thought Taiga and Keanu had things to… discuss. Privately. In her head, she thanked Tuomas and when she was left alone with Keanu in the back side of the car, separated from the front seats by a darkened window, she had use all her willpower in order not to just jump on him. It was going to be a hard hour to bare. 

“Taiga.” Keanu called silently as the car was moving again. He opened his arms invitingly and Taiga gladly scooted her way to sit right next to him, Keanu wrapping his arm around her shoulders, and she felt she could just drown to his arms. She leaned her head against his shoulder, inhaling his scent of tobacco and cologne. Taiga lifted her head and even though the shyness tried to make her look away again, she fought against it, feeling how deeply she started to blush yet again. Keanu noticed this, his smile growing wider and his other hand brushed her black hair out of her face. 

“It’s amazing how you can be even more beautiful in person.” Keanu spoke softly, like he didn’t want the rest of the world hearing the lovely words he meant only for her. His words made Taiga push her face against him, trying to hide her ongoing blushing. 

“And you are making me, who has never been shy, shy away from you like a teenager with her crush, mister way too charming.” Taiga spoke as silently as him, and she welcomed the hot chills when she felt Keanu nuzzling his face into her hair, breathing in her scent in the process. 

“It’s so fucking cute.” the way his calloused fingertips caressed her jawline and the skin of her neck made her short for breath, she wanted so badly to put her hand on his thigh which looked too fucking good in those wax coated jeans, but it was like her body wasn’t listening to her. She opened her mouth to say something, only to realize she was actually speechless, and that made her let out a husky laugh.

“Just being close to you makes me speechless, and my body doesn’t know what to do.” Taiga swallowed harshly, her fingers playing with his scarf, and the teasingly slow way that Keanu used to place a gentle kiss to her forehead almost made her whine out of need. 

“When we get to your place…” he started, the depth of his voice causing another set of hot chills all over her body. 

“You don’t have to speak…” he leaned more down, so he could kiss her cheek, and Taiga bit her lower lip. 

“I will take care of your body…” his breath brushed her lips as he moved so he could kiss her jawline. 

“… as I fuck the shy out of you.” 

Keanu kissed her with a burning hunger, muffling her moan which would’ve been very loud thanks to his words, and Taiga grabbed the front of his coat, pulling herself even closer to him, Keanu’s arm around her shoulders keeping her there. One would think that the sexual tension would ease off even a bit with them kissing and touching each other, but no, it was like pouring gasoline to a bonfire. 

Taiga felt her phone vibrating in her pocket and very unwillingly she broke off from the kiss, gasping for air as Keanus hot mouth traveled to kiss her neck as much as it was showing from under her jacket. She opened the lock screen just to see a whatapp text from Tuomas saying he would be dropping himself off at Porvoo, and with a devil -emote, he wished that the two of you would have a very pleasant evening. They were already in Porvoo?! Well, she didn’t mind - the faster they were at her place the better. 

For the rest of the ride, when ever they weren’t kissing, they actually managed to utter some words here and there, and in some case one could call it chatting. With few flirty and teasing words, but chatting nonetheless. When they finally were standing in her front yard, the red hindlights of the car disappearing into the darkness of the forest road, Keanu was smoking a cigarette while Taiga was trying to finish the phone call from Aleksi. Sure, the things he had forgot to tell them were important, but right now, Taiga only cared about the breathtakingly handsome and sexy man staring at her with his darkened eyes while smoking his cig. 

_“Aleksi, you have exactly one minute, then I’m hanging up.”_ Taiga said sternly, and Aleksi cleared his throat, trying to sum up the most important things a little faster. Taiga’s tongue was playing with her lip piercing, and she could feel Keanu’s eyes on her mouth as he inhaled one last, long drag from his cig. 

“It sounds so fucking sexy when you speak Finnish.” Keanu whispered, throwing the cigarette bud to the wet ground and taking a step closer to Taiga, his darkened eyes clouded with lust. The whole car ride from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport to the small village where she lived had made her so fucking aroused, all the kissing, touching and the sinful little words had made her absolutely soaking, she felt her own wetness as she moved her weight to her other leg. 

_“30 seconds.”_ Taiga said to Aleksi through her teeth, as she was digging her keys from her jackets inner pocket. Keanu lifted his travel bag onto his shoulder again and with her free hand, she took his hand and they walked to her front door. The dogs were staying at Petra and Pasi for tonight so they had the whole house for themselves. Taiga cursed silently as she fiddled with her keys, trying to find the right one and the fact that Aleksi was still motormouthing away in her ear and Keanu had leaned over to kiss her neck from behind were making the simple act of unlocking the door almost impossible. 

_“Time’s up, e-mail me, I will forget everything you just told me anyway, see you on Thursday, good night!”_ Taiga ended the phone call, put her phone to silent and finally, kicked her door while turning the key in the lock at the same time, getting her front door open. She heard Keanu chuckling a bit.

“That was violent.” he commented, and Taiga glanced over her shoulder as she stepped in. 

“The way I hung up on Aleksi or how I have to kick my door to unlock it?” she grinned, and Keanu arched his brow for a second as he thought of it.

“Both.” he answered as he pulled the door shut behind him, the lock clicking back on. 

Taiga pulled her black leather lappshoes off and before she could even open her black wool coat, Keanu’s travel bag hit the floor with a thud and Keanu had pulled her into a hug. She hugged him back, hearing how his heart raced as she leaned her head against his chest and yet again, she was astonished by the situation. Taiga was hugging Keanu, in her own home. And they were finally absolutely alone, just the two of them.

“I’m so happy to be here.” Keanu whispered and Taiga hugged him even tighter.

“I’m so happy you are here.” she smiled looking up on him. 

“I’m so happy to finally do this…” Keanu leaned lower, and Taiga closed her eyes and waited to be kissed again, but instead of a kiss, Keanu planted both of his hands on her jeans covered ass and squeezed her bum. Taiga snickered as Keanu let out a sigh of pure bliss. 

“Ohh, your ass feels even more gorgeous than it looks.” Keanu purred, and with a mischievous grin, Taiga moved her own hands over Keanu’s butt, groping a feel as well.

“We both have gorgeous asses, remember?” she murmured, and rubbed her thighs together feeling Keanu’s hands moving up just enough so he could slide his hands under her jeans and panties, being able to to squeeze her bare bum. 

“I’m going to find out what else is gorgeous in you…” and with that, they kissed again and Taiga shrugged her coat off of her, letting it drop to the ground. Keanu pulled his hands from her jeans and hastily opened his jacket, letting it hit the floor as well, instantly grabbing Taiga into his arms and pulling her flush against him, and finally, Taiga could let out all the sinful noises she wanted now that they were alone. 

She whimpered into the kiss as she felt the hardened front of his jeans pressing against her and losing the control of her body, her right hand slided to tease him, only her fingertips lightly brushing over his front. Even that small touch caused Keanu to moan against her lips and his left hand slipped under her t-shirt, feeling her skin. 

“You have no idea how fucking wet I am for you…” Taiga whispered in the middle of the kisses, her hand now pressing firmly against Keanu’s hard member still trapped inside his jeans, causing him to growl. He was about to push his long fingers in her jeans again, but she grabbed his wrist and stepped away, leading Keanu better in to her house. At this moment, her bedroom seemed to be way too far, but her living room couch wasn’t. 

Taiga tried to push Keanu to sit on her couch, but flashing her a toothy grin, he managed to flip their places and Taiga found herself dropping on to the couch and Keanu kneeling in front of her, his fingers opening her jeans. Taiga reached forward so she could pull Keanu’s beloved Arch t-shirt off of him, and he helped her taking it off. Just the sight of him shirtless made Taiga sigh out of admiration, and she took off her own t-shirt as well. 

Keanu had her jeans open and he moved closer, so he could kiss her again and open the clasp of her bra with ease, his hands swiftly discarding the piece of clothing and palming her breasts. Taiga moaned again, pulling Keanu even more closer, almost on top of her, pushing her chest more into Keanu’s hands and she broke from the kisses when his fingers started to play with her nipples. Whimpering with need, Taiga tried to breathe as Keanu moved his mouth to kiss and nip her neck, his left hand traveling lower on her body and straight into her jeans. Feeling the hot wetness of her soaked panties made him inhale sharply through his teeth.

“Oh fuck, Taiga, you weren’t kidding…” Keanu breathed and moved her panties to the side so he could finally touch her properly, and Taiga wanted to scream. Instead, she bit her teeth and whined, her hips moving against his hand by their own will and Keanu moved down on her body, his lips and tongue giving some proper attention to her breasts and nipples. Taiga pushed her fingers into Keanu’s thick raven hair and her eyes almost fluttered shut, she was so overwhelmed by her lust and her core ached to be touched so much.

“Please fuck me…” Taiga whispered and Keanu sucked her nipple with force, making her whine and tug his hair. 

“Should I?” Keanu grinned and chuckled deeply when Taiga tugged his hair even more. 

“Yes, yes…” Taiga nearly panted, the grin on his face growing wider as his fingers kept playing in her wetness. He lifted himself enough so that he could kiss her, his kisses being soft and leisurely on purpose and when Taiga tried to deepen the kisses, he moved away, making her whine. 

“I think I need to taste you first…” Keanu kissed her while his hands pulled her jeans and panties down and he moved to pull them off of her entirely. When he spread her thighs with his hands, Taiga felt herself blushing again, especially when Keanu was admiring her cunt, his already wet fingers returning to caress her and he licked his lips. He lifted his eyes to Taiga, and she couldn’t help the shy little smile spreading to her lips and Keanu shook his head, watching her laying in front of him naked, wet and blushing. Absolutely gorgeous, sinful and sweet at the same time.

“Now I know what else is gorgeous about you.” he spoke, his voice low and husky as he moved even closer to her. 

“What’s that?” she asked, her tongue and teeth playing with her lip piercing, and Keanu lowered his head, his breathing hot against her clit. 

“Everything.”  
  
The moment his hot tongue pressed against her clit, Taiga swore in Finnish, her eyes falling shut as Keanu took a better position between her legs - he was going to be there for a while. He groaned deeply against her clit as his tongue catched her sweet taste, and Taiga felt like she was already on the edge, she was so turned on she didn’t know what to do with herself. Luckily, Keanu seemed to know exactly, his tongue massaging her clit with no rush at all as his fingers slowly pushed inside her, feeling up her walls and as he found her most sensitive spot, Taiga’s moan of pleasure told it to him. 

“Oh my God…” Taiga sighed, leaning her head back to the couch pillow, Keanu’s fingers curling just right while his tongue took such good care of her clit, his lips sucking on it every now and then. 

“You taste even sweeter than I dreamed of…” Keanu purred giving her cunt a long, agonizingly slow lick before returning to her clit, using his tongue and lips with expertise, humming with the sheer pleasure of making her feel so good. 

“V-vittu sä oot niin hyvä…” (Fuck you’re so good) Taiga whimpered, and she didn’t even realize she spoke in Finnish, and while Keanu didn’t quite understand her, the tone of her voice told him everything he needed to know. Keanu could feel her walls clench around his fingers more and more often, fueling his fire to please her even more, her breathing growing quicker as her orgasm built up. 

“Please, please fuck me… I want to cum on your cock…” Taiga almost made herself blush with her dirty words, and Keanu chuckled, slowing the movements of his fingers on purpose. 

“And you will, sweetheart, but first…” he licked his lips as he returned to lick and suck on her clit, his fingers moving faster in her, curling at the right spot to make her absolutely lose it. 

“Oh fuck, Keanu, fuck!” she cried out and gasped as her orgasm hit her, her sounds and her flesh squeezing his fingers making Keanu want her even more. He helped her ride her orgasm and just watched her with dark eyes, her sweet taste lingering on his tongue. As Taiga started to calm down, he slowly pulled his fingers out and stood up to open his jeans while Taiga was catching her breath. 

Taiga watched as Keanu opened his jeans, and biting her lower lip, she rose up to sit properly, placing her hands on Keanu’s thighs and ran them up and down. With a playful grin on his lips, he was teasing her and opening his jeans reaaal lazily, making Taiga move impatiently. 

“Funny, I seem to have forgot how zippers work.” Keanu teased, and Taiga’s fingers were instantly opening his jeans, Keanu chuckling. Although his grin dropped almost instantly when Taiga had pulled his jeans down just enough to palm him through his black Calvin Kleins and the look on Taiga’s face was from his wet dreams. She was licking her lips eagerly as she watched in awe how her hands rubbed him through his boxers, and he was so hard it made her almost salivate. 

Giving him a burning look, she leaned closer and let the tip of her tongue trace the outline of his cock over his boxers, causing Keanu to grunt and he brought his left hands to pet her hair. 

“I’ve been thinking how your lip piercing must feel when you suck me…” his voice was gravelly, his fingers already pushing into her black hair. Hot chills ran all over Taigas body, and the sheer thought of Keanu having dirty thoughts about her made her even wetter. 

“Let’s find out…” she purred, her voice velvety, and it was her turn to tease and undress Keanu oh so lazily, pulling his jeans down more before even touching his boxers again. Keanu watched her with heavy lids, grunting when she palmed him again before starting to pull his boxers down. Instead of waiting to pull the boxers down enough, she moved even closer and as soon as she could she took Keanu’s tip between her lips, taking him deeper into her mouth the more she pulled her boxers down. 

Keanu moaned almost painfully and tugged her hair, Taiga delighted in sucking him, her hot and wet mouth hungry on him, her fingers wrapping around the rest of his shaft she couldn’t fit in. Her free hand caressed his torso up and down, feeling his chest rising with his short breaths and muscles moving under the soft skin. Taiga wasn’t big on giving head, but Keanu tasted amazing, he felt so amazing and the soft, deep moans of pleasure he let out were music to her ears. She used her tongue and made sure that her lip piercing was also rubbing against him, his body almost jolting at the sensation. 

“Taiga, you’re incredible…” Keanu breathed, tugging her hair even more and whimpering, Taiga took him deeper than anyone ever before, sucking and popping her head the best she could. Feeling her core aching from need again, she moved her hand to rub on her clit, Keanu noticing. 

“Oh, no you don’t…” he grunted, and pulled Taiga away from him by her hair, Taiga licking her lips and still touching herself, devilish grin on her lips. Keanu kicked his jeans and boxers off for good and pushed Taiga to lay on her back on the couch, climbing on top of her and spreading her legs. Taiga lifted her other leg on top of the couch, giving Keanu even more space as he leaned down, kissing her with a burning desire and he lined himself with her entrance, brushing his tip against her dripping folds, making her whimper into the kiss. 

Knowing she was on the pill, he carefully started to push himself into her, her cunt welcoming his cock being so wet and tight, the burn of his girth stretching her walls, making Taiga gasp for air and moan in pure extacy. She had wrapped her arms around his neck, pushing her fingers into his hair as they kissed again, both of them humming with pleasure. 

“You’re so perfect…” Keanu whispered against her lips, not letting her answer by kissing her again, with more passion and slowly, he started to sway his hips against hers. He felt so amazing Taiga had to keep her eyes closed, just enjoying how he felt inside her, his body weight on top of her, his long hair tickling her face. Breaking off from the kisses, she opened her heavy lids and saw Keanu watching her, his free hand caressing her body as he leaned his weight on the other. 

“I’m in heaven…” Taiga purred silently, Keanu letting out a soft, deep chuckle before kissing her again. 

“I’m there right with you…” he answered, dropping his head so he could kiss and slightly suck on her neck, Taiga closing her eyes again and just enjoying so much. The way Keanu used his hips, he dived so deep with each thrust and he varied his speed with a few faster ones before almost pulling out of her, just to push himself back just as leisurely. She wasn’t even exaggerate when she thought that this truly had been the best sex of her life. So far…

Her hips swayed to meet with Keanu’s as well as she could and when she wrapped her other leg around Keanu’s waist, his pace grew quicker and his thrusts gained power, the moans of pleasure escaping from Taiga’s lips growing more desperate. Keanu gripped her hips with his hands and rose up on his knees, pulling her more into his lap and his pace increased even more, her body moving with the power of his hips snapping against hers. His almost black eyes ate her up as she started to become wild in front of him. 

“More, oh God Keanu, more!” she cried, and with a deep growl he obliged, his thumb finding its way to rub on her clit as she whined his name. Her walls fluttered around him, Keanu bit his teeth and pounded into her with force, Taiga letting out a scream as her orgasm hit her, and the squeeze of her flesh was more than enough to make Keanu reach his high as well. Keanu took some support from the back of the couch as he leaned forward, his hips slowly moving with his orgasm and he gently kissed her, both of them out of breath. 

Carefully, Taiga opened her eyes and it seemed she was still seeing stars around the perimeter of her vision, a wide, extremely satisfied smile growing on her face and her fingers played with Keanu’s hair. 

“Are you always this amazing?” she purred, making Keanu giggle softly against her neck. 

“Oh honey, this was just a quickie in my books…” he purred back, and to mark his words, he pinched her nipple with his fingers. 

“Well, I think this needed to happen in order for us to… well, function.” he giggled back and Keanu lifted his head so he could watch her post-orgasm face. And fuck, how she was glowing. 

“You mean there was sexual tension between us?” he goofed and Taiga giggled again, pecking his lips with a quick kiss. 

Indeed, now that they actually could think of something else than fucking each others… well, among other things, Taiga showed Keanu around the house and she made them dinner, one of her favorite pasta sauces which Keanu also seemed to really like. And of course, she had to warm up the sauna for them. Even though Keanu had his own separate bedroom prepared, Taiga didn’t mind at all when Keanu wished to join her in her master bedroom for the night, and if the sex they had on the couch was just a quickie to Keanu, he showed her his definition of a normal session…

In the morning, Taiga woke up before her alarm and decided to make them breakfast. While the oven was heating up, she decided to walk to her mail box and get the mail since Keanu was still sleeping. It was still drizzling and windy, so they would more likely just stay in for today. Not that there was much to do or see in her village, anyway. 

Back in the kitchen, Taiga browsed the food and wine magazine she had a subscription for, when Keanu walked in dressed in black sweatpants and his Arch t-shirt, his hair all messy and his handsome face a tad sleepy. He looked so homey rubbing his eyes with his hand as he went for coffee, it made Taiga smile widely and her heart was singing. 

“Morning, babe.” Keanu yawned, and him calling Taiga with any kind of pet name always made her toes curl. 

“Morning handsome, slept well?” she took a sip of her own coffee and watched as Keanu joined her, sitting opposite of her by the kitchen table. 

“Surprisingly well, yeah. I usually don’t sleep well no matter what when I’m not home, but I don’t remember waking up at all during the night.” he scratched the back of his head and tasted the coffee, looked the mug and nodded his head, satisfied of the taste of Finnish coffee. 

“That’s good to hear.” Taiga smiled and browsed through her other mail, one letter looking way more fancier than the rest of the white envelopes. She frowned and turned the letter around, her eyes widening and she dropped the letter like it hurt her and covered her mouth. Keanu switched his eyes between Taiga and the fancy letter, not understanding why she seemed so shocked. 

“… uh, Taiga?” he chuckled, and Taiga dropped her hands, taking the letter into her hands again. 

“What is that?” Keanu asked, and Taiga gulped visibly. 

“I-it’s a letter… from the President.” she said, and Keanu was happy he wasn’t just taking a sip of his coffee. 

“What? Seriously?” he asked, and Taiga showed him the letter. On one of the corners it said both in Finnish and in English, Office of the President of the Republic of Finland. Keanu blinked his eyes, absolutely confused, but Taiga was almost 100% sure what it was. 

“Oh God oh God oh God…” she murmured as she opened it and pulled out a very official looking card. As she saw it, she managed to cover her mouth before screaming. It was the formal invitation to the annual presidential independence day ball held at the presidential castle, Helsinki. It was an invitation for her… and plus one. 

After she had explained to Keanu what it was and what a huge freaking honor it was to get an invitation to the ball, she shook her head in disbelief. 

“And you got invited? Congratulations Taiga, I’m so proud of you!” Keanu smiled and took her hand in his over the table, Taiga letting out a small laugh. 

“This is unbelievable, I just-! Wow!” Taiga lifted her eyes to Keanu. 

“Will you be my plus one? I mean I totally understand if you don’t want to, but it would be so fucking amazing.” Taiga smiled, and Keanu blinked his eyes. 

“That - that would be an absolute honor. Yeah, of course!” Keanu smiled as well, and then it hit her. It was the first week of November. The party was on December 6th. And she didn’t have a dress. Some people got their invitations during the summer of even earlier, but hers came in so late, probably thanks to the tv series, she had less than a month to get herself a dress to the most important event of her small country! 

“Where the HELL am I going to get myself a dress?!” She dropped the letter and rubbed her face, Keanu still holding her hand and squeezing it, cheering her up. 

“I bet there are many designers willing to do an amazing dress for you, babe. What do men usually wear, a tux?” 

“It’s a full on white tie event, but some people have taken some liberties with that.” Taiga breathed in deep. Yeah, he was right. She would find a dress, hell, she had heard of cases when some guests had to find a new dress in under a week! 

“Holy shit, Keanu. We’re going to Linna.” 


	4. Chapter 4

Next week was hectic, the word being an understatement - Keanu was now officially in Finland, and the media was all over him, which of course was to be expected. And luckily, a country the size of Finland didn’t have much media outlets to begin with, just the couple of biggest news papers (and trash tabloids…) and four main tv channels which broadcasted news. And of course, when she had RSVP’d to the presidents independence day ball invitation, it was all over the tabloid magazines the next day. Taiga Kelo got invited to Linna! Will Keanu join her? Will we see Keanu in Linna? Yeah, her little country was swooning over him. 

What came to Taiga’s dress panic, Tuomas had an answer. Her big sister Ellen was a seamstress who lived in Sweden, but came home to Finland every Christmas, usually for the whole month of December. When he had asked her would she be able to come to Finland a couple of weeks earlier than usual, after hearing for what reason she had booked a flight and packed her sewing machines right away! Luckily Taiga already had a clear picture of a dress in her mind, and knowing Ellen’s skills, it wouldn’t be too hard to do either. 

During that week they also had the biggest meeting with their whole production team and all of the main cast actors were present - Keanu, Peter Stormare, Peter Tägtgren and even Till Lindemann. Needless to say, Taiga was having a quite a fan girl moment with meeting them all but especially Till, Rammstein being one of her favorite bands ever. She wasn’t the only one fangirling though; [Mikko Leppilampi](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.ilcdn.fi%2FVUeTT-981_lBPzKc62dnfshoMR4%3D%2Ffull-fit-in%2F612x%2Fimg-s3.ilcdn.fi%2F54cf0bb414e79ad85f1647609dbe276e8731978c8a53ec69f0b250f8636a94f0.jpg&t=ZDQzNmY4MzQ4NTIzOGE2OWFmZWM2ZmJlNTIxN2JmMWFkZTdlNTc0MCxZRFJHMlM5dw%3D%3D&b=t%3AGcGyL_LbAgLmgC6_vKGyXg&p=https%3A%2F%2Ffickensteinn.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189758071233%2Fdarkland-pt3&m=1), a Finnish actor who was selected for the role of the crime investigator Kallio, and this was easily the biggest role of his career, despite having starred in lot’s and lot’s of “a-list” movies in Finland, this role was wrestling in a different series. Taiga had known Mikko for years, and it was so sweet to watch him, usually a well composed and charming man being like a little boy around Keanu especially.

On the third week of November, the shootings for Darkland started. Since the first book was set in winter time, from November to late February, they wouldn’t shoot scenes in chronological order, but in the order the weather dictated. They would need a lot of dark, grey, cloudy, windy and cold drizzly days and nights for the countryside shootings, and luckily, November was usually the most darkest and rainiest month of the year in Finland - there was nearly just six hours of daylight in the south. On the first day of filming, when Taiga saw Keanu dressed and having the scar crossing his right cheek like Michael Darkland, she became emotional - she saw her own character come to life before her own eyes. 

Even when the days of shooting were long and tiring, she couldn’t just leave the set. She wanted to be there, monitor things, make small suggestions if she saw them fit the script with the director, and of course, to see Keanu act. Not so surprisingly, he was brilliant. He was Michael Darkland incarnate. How he could change into a totally different man in a matter of seconds was baffling. From the warm hearted man who joked around and chatted with the film crew to an absolutely hard boiled, cold, introverted, sad and angry FBI agent, with a snap of a finger. 

On some days when they had to do filming in Helsinki, Aleksi had arranged a private apartment for Keanu, and the other main stars of course, to stay in the city when the days would last late, but Keanu almost never wanted to stay there. He found it amusing that Taiga thought that the 45 minute drive from Helsinki to her home village was “a long drive”. After explaining to her that 45 minutes in LA was a short time to travel, she felt a bit better about the fact that Keanu insisted on coming home with her every night. And she didn’t mind it, far from it. The fact that Keanu wanted to stay with her made her heart sing love songs on the top of it’s lungs. 

On the last week of November, Friday 29th to be exact, there was going to be a small pause in filming for the weekend. It was time for the annual pre-Christmas party of the publishing house who had published all of Taiga’s books. All of the other capable writers in the same house would gather with the publishing team and celebrate together. This year was different, since the production team of the Darkland -series was also invited, actors included. And the party being in fancy club in Helsinki, Keanu’s apartment in the center became handy for once. 

Taiga was just doing the finishing touches to her silver and black eye make up by adding some silver glitter to her eyes inner corners, the light reflecting on the glitter quite as nicely as her black dress, covered in black sequins. It had small sleeves reaching her elbows and the a-lined hem ended over her knees, being a tad longer than mid thigh. Her stockings were black fishnet stockings with dozens and dozens of glued faux diamonds on them, and she was starting to be quite a sparkly sight. 

“Wow. Every disco ball in town will be jealous of you.” Keanu smiled as he watched Taiga tying her long black hair in to a low bun, letting some strands lop free so it looked a bit more messy and frisky. Taiga giggled and rose up by the table she was doing her makeup and walked over to him, looking him from head to toe. He looked way too handsome in his fitted suit pants and button up shirt, all black of course. 

“They better be, the dress code was sparkling after all.” Taiga smiled back and Keanu blinked his eyes.

“… was it?” he looked down on himself, and he was indeed quite… matt. Taiga crossed her arms on her chest and tilted her head, a teasing smile on her lips. 

“There’s usually a punishment for those who don’t follow the dress code, you know. Last year it was that the ones not dressed accordingly had to wear a toilet seat ring around their neck for one hour. A clean and unused one, of course.” Taiga smirked and Keanu lifted his eyes on her, biting his lower lip and he had that one adorable look on his handsome face which made him look like a troubled little boy. 

“You don’t happen to have a sequin tie or something in your bag, do you?” he asked and Taiga pouted her lips as she was thinking. She usually didn’t pack much for an overnight stay, but she also did come prepared for dress emergencies… Turning on her heels, she padded her way to her traveling bag and opened it, and soon she pulled out a silver sequined scarf. 

“Change the shirt so something less formal, then this will do. It’s a relaxed party after all.” Taiga walked closer holding the scarf, and she noticed how the look on Keanus eyes changed and he grin he gave her made her gulp. He closed the space between them and took the scarf, holding it with both hands. 

“Seems like my hands are occupied. I can’t open my shirt.” Keanu purred, his grin growing wider and Taiga got hot chills. Licking her lips, she laid her hands on his hips, lower than Keanu had anticipated, dangerously close to his groin which made him do a sharp inhale. From there, her warm hands traveled up and she pulled his shirt out of his pants, starting to slowly unbutton the shirt. She tilted her head again, her eyes glazing with arousal the more skin she exposed, button by button, and Keanu loved the foxy grin dancing on Taiga’s lips. 

Once the shirt was open, Taiga pushed it off his broad shoulders and swallowed harshly, about to step back from Keanu so he could take his shirt off, but using the scarf, he looped it around her and pulled her back with it, flush against his body, not caring if the sequins of her dress felt harsh against his skin. Taiga hummed as her hands started to feel around his bare torso, Keanu leaned down and while his kiss was gentle at first, it could very easily ignite into a flaming hot one and things could very, very easily escalate from there. So before the kisses would turn any deeper, Taiga slowly broke from the kisses and took a quick glance at the clock on the wall. 

“We need to leave in twenty minutes…” she nearly whispered. 

“I can make you cum in five.” Keanu breathed, his voice deep and raspy and Taiga could feel how all the strength from her knees disappeared for a millisecond, making her gasp. Keanu was quick to grab her, bringing his face closer to hers, their lips almost touching and Taiga was so close to just giving up. 

“You know that wouldn’t be enough for me, or to you.” Taiga whispered, her voice shaky and she swallowed again, her throat very dry. 

“… I know.” Keanu whispered back, gave her a little peck on the lips and having a shit-eating grin on his face, he stepped away and turned to his closet in order to take out another shirt. Taiga felt almost paralyzed, so she inhaled her lungs full and slowly let out a silent sigh, trying to calm herself down so she wouldn’t just jump on Keanu and get rid of their clothing for good. 

“And you accuse me of teasing…” Taiga murmured as she returned to her makeup bag and searched for a specific Jeffree Star velour liquid lipstick. 

“We both tease, and we both love it. Or are you saying otherwise?” Keanu looked over his shoulder as he put on a black t-shirt, and Taiga paused with applying the liquid lipstick, just to give Keanu a heated glance. 

“That’s what I thought.” he grinned and put on his black blazer and reached for the silver scarf. He very loosely wrapped it once around his neck and pulled his hair free, his finger getting stuck in a tangle. A tangle he couldn’t solve with his fingers this time. 

“Ugh. Babe, do you have your little miracle brush with you?” Keanu asked, and Taiga being finished with applying her lipstick, she took her tangle teezer and pulled out the chair she had sat on so Keanu could sit on it instead. Getting his finger free from the tangle, he sat down and closed his eyes. He normally didn’t let anyone else brush his hair since it felt weird, but Taiga’s brush and the way she did it felt really relaxing. One night at her home, when they were sauna fresh she had insisted on brushing his hair free of tangles and after saying yes, he had almost fell asleep in her lap while she was brushing his hair. 

After his hair was free of tangles and flowing almost silk like, he stood up and turned around, looking down on himself again. The scarf complimented his more relaxed outfit nicely. 

“What do you think?” Keanu lifted his eyes on Taiga, who let out a sigh of pure affection. 

“Breathtaking.” she smiled, earning herself a snicker and once again, he stepped closer so he could kiss her adoringly. 

After a short cab ride to the club the party was held, they were greeted by the door and inside, the party was already on full swing. A live band was playing on the stage, people were dancing and cheerfully chattering and laughing in small groups. Waitress offered them a glass of sparkling each as a welcome drink and they toasted. 

“Kippis!” (“Cheers!”) Keanu said before tasting the sparkling wine, making Taiga blink her eyes. 

“Who the hell taught you that?” she let out a laugh and tasted the drink as well. 

“Peter. He also taught me that cheers is skol in Swedish, but I wanted to learn it in Finnish.” Keanu shrugged his shoulder with a boyish grin before offering her his arm, to which Taiga very contently wrapped her own arm around. Since they had two Peters on set, Stormare and Tägtgren, they had made a deal that Stormare was called Peter, and Tägtgren was called Pepe. That was a better alternative for “Till’s bitch” what he had first suggested himself (although some people still called him that and everybody knew who they meant). 

It didn’t take long before familiar people from the publishing house came to greet Taiga and Keanu, Tuomas being one of them. Taiga watched how Keanu was being his charming and polite self, smiling and after someone had introduced themselves to him, he repeated their name told them how nice it was to meet them and she couldn’t stop smiling. 

Maybe within an hour, everyone who had wanted to meet Keanu had now met him, leaving him in peace and they could now just enjoy the party. The food and drinks were on the house, and Taiga was humming very pleased with her small plate full of delicious finger food, Keanu and Tuomas also having one for themselves, as the three of them stood by a circular bar table and chit chatted lightly.

Keanu was just about to take a sip of his warm glühwein, when he saw something and bursted to laugh, covering his laughter with his hand and Taiga turned her gaze to the direction Keanu was looking and snickered loudly, starting to giggle as well - Stormare and Tägtgren were both dressed up in the ugliest and kitchyest Christmas sweaters possible, both of them had flashing led lights and if that wasn’t enough, Tägtgren had a red reindeer nose and Stormare had a felt headband with reindeer antlers and jingle bells. Both of them had a straight face like nothing was out of the ordinary. 

“Good evening and merry pre-Christmas to all! Miss Kelo, Keanu, Tuomas.” Peter made a little bow to each as he said their names and took a long sip of his sparkling. 

“You guys look absolutely ridiculous. I love it!” Keanu giggled and the swedes gave each others mischievous grins.

“Didn’t Till want to be seen with you two or did he refuse to come at all?” Taiga smirked and Tägtgren snickered. 

“Maaaybe. When we spoke about ‘’something festive and kitschy’’, he thought a sparkly Santa hat would be enough.” Pepe answered and looked next to him when Till appeared, otherwise dressed casually in black, indeed having a sparkling Santa hat on and he gave both Peters a dark glance, his moss green eyes telling them that he couldn’t believe the shit they were wearing. Tägtgren blinked his eyes all puppy like and poked the red plastic nose, making the led inside of it flash on. Till looked at him, the blinking nose, him again, and being unable to keep his poker face any longer cracked to laugh, making everyone else laugh as well.

“You two are such fuking idiots, oh mein Gott…” Till wiped his face and after announcing his need for a drink, or a hundred, Taiga pointed him in the right direction of the open bar, Pepe going with him as Peter decided to stay with them, trying to snag a finger food from Keanu’s plate, only to have him slap his hand. 

“Hey, get your own!” he tried to sound serious but his wide grin fought against his strict tone, making Peter roll his eyes. 

“But I’m so old and tired, I possibly can’t walk all the way to… oh they’re that close, okay hold on.” Peter noticed the buffet tables quite close behind them and made his way over to them, Taiga giggling and Keanu shook his head, smiling widely. 

Taiga couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed so much as she had listening to Keanu and Peter chatting with each other. They were absolutely hilarious and Taiga was about to get concerned about her eye makeup running down on her cheeks if she would continue laughing like this. 

After they had finished eating, one of her fellow authors, Jenni had joined them and while Keanu and Peter were chatting with Tuomas, her and Jenni chatted in Finnish, talking about what was new, how the series was going and maybe a little gossiping as well. At moments, Keanu couldn’t help but to look and listen to Taiga when she spoke to Jenni, and he didn’t even notice the sigh of affection he let out as he watched her. Although, Peter and Tuomas did notice and Peter looked at Tuomas a bit questioning, Tuomas nodding his head as answer to a very obvious question, making the Swedish actor grin almost fatherly. 

When the band started a really [joyful Christmas song](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DOFvlQMyGYns&t=NTg0MDNjMTFkNjFkODI0ZjU2OGYzYzlmOTkzMGViOTU0ZjM5ZDQ1NyxZRFJHMlM5dw%3D%3D&b=t%3AGcGyL_LbAgLmgC6_vKGyXg&p=https%3A%2F%2Ffickensteinn.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189758071233%2Fdarkland-pt3&m=1), Taiga and Jenni looked at each others, let out an excited scream and both women beelined to the dance floor, starting to dance to the twist -style song. Keanu chuckled as he watched the girls dance, and Taiga was sparkling under the lights in her sequin dress and diamonded stockings, even though she seemed to sparkle in his eyes all the time now days. Her smile and shining eyes alone made invisible hearts pop up above Keanu’s head like in a cartoon, or that’s how he envisioned it anyway. 

Peter nudged Keanu and the older actor was holding a cigarette between his fingers, and he nodded, digging up his own cigs, following Peter to the outside balcony. Even with several heaters, they helped little to nothing in the harsh November wind. They lit up their cigs and both men took long drags. 

“So. You have a thing for Taiga, huh?” Peter grinned, making Keanu inhale his cigarette smoke wrong and causing him to cough heavily, Peter rolling his eyes and patting him in the back. 

“I, I have no idea-” Keanu started, but he closed his mouth when Peter lifted his index finger to him. 

“Don’t you dare, Keanu. I’ve known you for YEARS, and for fucks sake even if I haven’t, it doesn’t take years of friendship to notice how you look at her. You smile differently, you speak differently to her. Hell, the whole party knows.” Peter let out a laugh and smoked his cig. Keanu took another drag as well, this time not almost choking on it and he didn’t argue back. 

“I guess there’s no point in hiding it?” he asked, Peter grinning widely at him. 

“Well you’re not exactly doing much to hide it. But you seem to be happy. That’s enough for me.” his words made Keanu smile and he nodded. 

“I am happy. The feeling is mutual, too and… shit. I think this is not just a crush anymore, Peter. I think I may be falling in love with her.”

Keanu admitting his feeling out loud made him visibly blush, and Peter chuckled, patting Keanu on the shoulder and pulling him into a hug. 

“Go for it, Charlie.” 

They went back inside to their table, to find Jenni and Taiga with new glasses of sparkling, giggling with Tuomas, and when Taiga noticed them coming back, her smile seemed to outshine her outfit. 

“Hey.” Keanu smiled, wrapping his hand around Taiga’s waist and pulling her closer, making her giggle again. 

“Hei.” Taiga answered with the Finnish equivalent, and when Keanu leaned down to give her a quick kiss, Taiga didn’t think anything about it first. It was normal, they kissed all the time anyways. … except that this kiss was their first public one. Realizing that, Taiga blinked her eyes and Keanu leaned closer, lifting his other hand to cup her face. 

“Let’s talk about this later, okay?” he whispered, and kissed her again. Taiga could feel her heart pounding in her chest like crazy, and as a clear flush of redness rose to her cheeks, it made Keanu chuckle and Taiga could literally feel her own eyes sparkling almost as much as her dress. Hearing a fan girly squeal next to them, Taiga turned her gaze at Jenni who had her hands over her mouth and she nearly bounced both feet together. 

“I knew it, I knew oh my God you guys!” Jenni squealed and Taiga chuckled. 

“But keep in mind Jenni, we’re not a couple in public.” Taiga said, moving her eyes to Keanu. 

“Yet.” she added, her smile so wide it hurt her cheeks again. 

“Exactly. Yet.” Keanu agreed with her, pecking a kiss into her hair. Sure, the party was labelled as a private party, but Taiga wouldn’t be surprised if a blurry cellphone picture of them kissing would be all over the shitty tabloids tomorrow. But that would be tomorrow’s problem. Tonight, she would enjoy the party with her friends and her amazing almost public boyfriend, all of them cracking to laugh when they noticed Pepe and Till dancing together, cheek on cheek to the jolly Christmas music. She did have butterflies in her tummy, but not just because of the public display of affection between her and Keanu. 

The presidential independence day ball was only a week away.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning after the pre-Christmas party, Taiga woke up with a small hangover, but nothing that a long shower, antacid and a tall glass of ice cold Coca Cola couldn’t fix. After her shower, she returned under the covers and smiled, when she felt Keanu move behind her and he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her back against his chest. He was still so delightfully warm from sleep and Taiga tried to move even closer to him, Keanu wrapping his other arm around her too. Soon, they were a whole mess of limbs which made Taiga giggle. 

“Morning.” Keanu kissed her shoulder, causing her hot chills. 

“Huomenta.” Taiga grinned, using the Finnish equivalent. She thought it was a neat little way of subtly teaching Keanu some Finnish, since he was interested about the language. 

“Huomenta…” he murmured, repeating the word, his lips tickling her skin and she giggled again. 

“Very good, you said it perfectly.” she smiled, having her eyes closed and she hummed contently when Keanu’s hands started to caress her naked skin leisurely. After a moment of comfortable silence, Taiga opened her eyes and thought about the many, many kisses they had shared last night at the party. 

“Hey, about the kisses last night…” Taiga started and Keanu hummed, planting several kisses to her neck and shoulder. 

“What about them?” he purred deeply, and Taiga swallowed harsly, feeling Keanus cock growing harder against her butt cheek. 

“D-do you, do you want to go public with me?” Taiga breathed heavily as Keanu’s hand cupped her breast and started to fondle both of them, his fingers brushing over her already hardened nipples. 

“Hell yes I do. The whole ‘’let’s date in secrecy’’ thing is so fucking stupid. I’m too old for that kind of shit.” Keanu’s voice was even deeper than normally, being his morning voice and he knew how it affected Taiga, his hot breath burning her ear. 

“Even now I want to scream to the whole world that I’m yours.” he continued, and Taiga blinked her eyes, a wide smile growing on her face thanks to his choice of words. 

“And I’m yours.” Taiga purred, pushing her ass against his hard cock, Keanu grunting and she turned her head so they could kiss. Keanu’s hand travelled down on her body and Taiga opened her legs, giving him full access to her wet folds, his fingers massaging her so well. 

“My girl is always so wet for me…” Keanu growled between the kisses, causing Taiga to whimper and push her hips against his hand. Soon he moved just enough so he could line himself with her and helping with his hand, Keanu slowly pushed into her, both of them moaning into the kisses. The way he filled her made the world in Taiga’s head do somersaults, the slow sway of his hips making his cock rub and stretch her walls so deliciously it was otherworldly. 

“This is all we’re going to do today…” Keanu breathed against her lips and Taiga moaned, Keanu’s fingers brushing over her clit. 

“Promise?” she grinned, using her lower muscles to clench around his cock, making him hiss and the pace of his hips grew quicker. 

“Fuck yeah.” 

***

First week of December started with the last fitting of Taiga’s evening dress for the presidential party. Ellen secured the dress from the back and Taiga shifted in place a bit, so the dress took its place on her body. 

_“Well?”_ Ellen was fiddling with her fingers, clearly nervous. Taiga looked down on herself, but the small mirror in the dressing booth was not big enough to show her the full picture.

 _“I want to see it from the big mirror.”_ Taiga said and Ellen moved the drape away so they could step out and into the room with a small podium to stand on, with couple of large mirrors in front of it. Keanu was sitting in the room, shuffling his phone when they stepped in, he lifted his eyes to Taiga. His eyes grew wider and his lips opened slightly and Taiga couldn’t help but to smile and blush as she stepped on to the podium, Ellen hustling around her making sure the hem as descending beautifully. 

Looking herself in the big mirrors, Taiga let out a sigh of amazement. The dress was black chiffon, the color gradienting down into a gorgeous royal blue, it had only one wider shoulder strap and it had decorative beads on the strap and on her left side. The back was quite open with four wide straps and the blue gradient part had faux swarovskis, making the lower part of the hem look like a night sky on dusk. 

_“Ellen, this is… This is more than I could ever hope for!”_ Taiga let out a laugh, covering her mouth and Ellen beamed with pride. 

_“Well it helped a lot that you had such a clear image of what you wanted!”_ Ellen smiled and watched from afar as Taiga swayed in place, making the hem move and the faux swarovskis sparkled. Taiga turned to face Keanu and spread her arms, showing the dress even better. 

“What do you think?” Taiga asked, looking down on the dress, but a loud thump made her lift her eyes back to Keanu, and as he sat on the armchair absolutely still, he had dropped his phone and just stared at her mindlessly. Both her and Ellen laughed, and chuckling himself, he snapped out of his trance and picked his phone, placing it to the side table next to the chair, standing up. 

“You look absolutely stunning.” he praised as he walked to Taiga and took her hands, and for once thanks to the podium, Taiga was taller than him. 

“You will outshine everyone at the party.” he looked up to her, smiling and maybe it was how the beaded decoration reflected on his eyes or then they actually seemed to sparkle. Giggling softly, Taiga bowed down enough so she could kiss him, and grinning widely, Ellen took a couple of steps back and exited the room, since he also had something for Keanu. 

After a few kisses, Keanu stepped back so he could really look at her, his head slightly tilted and Taiga felt like a little girl with her crush again. 

“I can’t wait to see when I have the whole outfit on. With my hair and makeup done, I mean.” Taiga already knew how she wanted her hair - up on a sleek ponytail which would be curled, with a matching beaded hair accessory and her eye makeup would be a matching black and blue with silver sparkles and a nude lip. 

“I will be just staring at you the whole evening, with hearts popping over my head.” Keanu smiled and made her snicker. Ellen came back, holding a dress bag which held Keanu’s white tie suit inside. 

“Ah, perfect, thank you very much! Did you managed to do the adjustments I wished for?” Keanu took the dress bag from Ellen and she nodded with a sly grin. 

“Yes I did, and thank you for trusting me with this project. If you guys don’t win the media’s ‘’most dashing pair of the night’ title, they must be absolutely blind!” Ellen declared and with Keanu’s help, you stepped down from the podium. 

***

December 6th, the big evening. Independence was never a thing that a country as small as Finland took for granted, also being a country that had been under both the Swedish and Russian rule in the past. It was a plain miracle that even though they lost land in the winter war and continuation war against Russia, they kept their ground and remained independent. In Taiga’s books, that was a victory on it’s own. 

Even though Keanu had his private apartment in Helsinki, he wanted for them to stay in a hotel rather than there for this special night. The after parties were always held at [hotel Kämp](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotelkamp.com%2Fen%2F&t=MjU1NGJkYzhhZjg3M2IxMjI0YTNlNDU4MjAxYzA0NmM3MDdiYWRlNCx3cUdqa1lEcg%3D%3D&b=t%3AGcGyL_LbAgLmgC6_vKGyXg&p=https%3A%2F%2Ffickensteinn.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189832342248%2Fdarkland-pt-4&m=1), which was close to the presidential palace and one of the most, if not THE most exquisite (and expensive) hotels in Finland. When Taiga heard that Keanu had reserved one of the executive suites for them, she felt lightheaded. She could only guess how much one night would cost, especially on independence day, but Keanu told her not to think about it. He knew how special this day and night was going to be for her, and he wanted to make it as magical as possible. 

They arrived in the hotel by noon, and not so surprisingly, there were few paparazzis outside but also couple of young girls and boys who were there just in hopes of meeting Keanu. Taiga watched as he posed with them in pictures and signed blu ray cases of his movies for them, and one of the girls even had one Darkland copy that she wished for Taiga to sign, as a christmas present for her father. Naturally, she was happy to sign it, and seeing how happy and shook the youngsters were, it filled her with happiness as well. 

Inside Kämp, Taiga had been there only once before in a book publishing party, in the same space where the after parties would be held. It was a gorgeous place to say the least, and she breathed in the history of the building, the cultured side of her enjoying immensely. 

After checking in, they were escorted to their room and Keanu let her step into their suite first. She stepped straight into the separate living room and she looked around in awe, since this was by far the most top notch hotel room she had even stayed. She opened the dark double doors to the bed room and padded her way to one of the windows, the view opening over the Esplanade central park. She heard Keanu closing the door and he joined her, wrapping his arms around her and placed his chin on her shoulder, also admiring the view. 

“I feel like royalty right now, and I don’t even have my dress on yet.” Taiga smiled, Keanu kissing her cheek. 

“You are royalty to me babe.” he hummed and Taiga turned around so she could hug him, squealing in excitement against his chest, making Keanu chuckle. 

“I’m guessing you’re excited about tonight?” he asked and Taiga nodded her head vigorously. 

“You have no idea! Good thing we came this early, I have time to shower in peace and do my makeup before the hairdresser comes.” she smiled and Keanu grinned, his hands moving from her lower back to squeeze her bum. 

“Our room has a sauna, did you know?” he purred and Taiga arched her brow. Keanu had really got into the whole sauna culture during his stay in Finland, and not just because it felt amazing and relieved both mental and physical stress.

“Really? Well then… It’s only fair that we use it, hm?” she purred back and Keanu leaned to kiss her deeply.

“You can continue telling me more about the traditions you do this day…” he suggested, which made Taiga smile again. One day on set, Taiga had noticed that during breaks, Keanu was always reading a book. A book that told about the last 120 years of Finland’s history, very summarized, but still. After wondering why he was reading it, he told her that he thought it was only appropriate since he was going to attend a party that celebrated their independence that he would know something about it. It had flattered Taiga beyond imagining. 

“Speaking of traditions…” Taiga stepped away from him and walked to the living room, finding the remote control for the fancy 55” OLED TV and turning it on, choosing the right channel. A black and white film was on, and based on the clothing, it was an old war movie. 

“[The Unknown Soldier](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThe_Unknown_Soldier_%281955_film%29&t=NjM3OTIxOGJjODZhZTliZjFhZmZhYWYzZGIyYmNhYmUxYmFiZGUyZSx3cUdqa1lEcg%3D%3D&b=t%3AGcGyL_LbAgLmgC6_vKGyXg&p=https%3A%2F%2Ffickensteinn.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189832342248%2Fdarkland-pt-4&m=1), made in 1955. It’s shown every single independence day, starting at noon. Usually, I watch this every year or at least keep in the background as I do other stuff, and I almost know the lines in my sleep but.” Taiga sighed, lifting her eyes to Keanu. 

“It’s a classic, perhaps the most beloved Finnish films ever made. It’s based on the novel of Väinö Linna, and the novel is considered to be a defining part of the national legacy and identity of Finland.” she continued to tell him, and she swallowed a snicker, while Keanu was listening to her, he was also trying to listen to the soldiers speaking Finnish in the movie. The way they spoke was very old fashioned, true to the time the film was made, also using a lot of different dialect phrases all over Finland’s different areas. After a while, he shook his head. 

“Yeah, I won’t even try and understand what they are saying. You need to teach me more.” Keanu chuckled and Taiga nodded excitedly. 

“It’s not called one of the most difficult languages in the world for nothing. We have some real tongue twisters, but good thing you have very skilled tongue.” Taiga flashed him a foxy grin as she started to pad towards the bathroom. 

“Oh yeah? I must put it to good use then. In fact… right now!” Keanu grinned mischievously before lunging after Taiga, making her let out a playful scream and running the rest of the way to the bathroom and sauna. 

***

Breathing in deeply, Taiga looked at herself from the mirror. She was now in full glam, dress on, hair and makeup done, the whole shebang. Her black hair was indeed slicked back to a high ponytail, and the ponytail was curled and added some curled extensions to make it look fuller. On the right side of her head she had a matching beaded hair accessory, and like she planned, her eye makeup was a black and blue gradient with silver sparkles on the inner corners. She had her Vivienne Westwood necklace with the signature orb shaped like a heart and the only ring she was wearing was a silver knuckleduster armadillo ring, also by Westwood. 

Taiga glanced at the clock, quarter over six. The reception would start at seven, and the first ones in the line to shake the hands with the presidential couple would be the war veterans and government representatives, with other higher ranking officers from the military and police forces and etcetera. Then it would usually mix up a little bit, the line including actors, successful athletes like the Finnish Lions who won the world championship in ice hockey this summer but also normal everyday working Finns who had done something grand for their country in order to get an invitation. 

Of course, the most of the reception would be aired on television. It might sound silly, but Finns watching other Finns standing in line to shake the president’s hand? An absolute culmination of Finnish culture. Airing the party was also a tradition and a way for the whole country to celebrate together. People loved to watch it and rank the dresses of the famous people and hear the interviews of the war veterans and other people who they might want to see in the party. Of course, the whole country was waiting to see Keanu in the palace with Taiga, and she was nervous. Not just because she was quite sure they would be quite much in the spot line, she was fine with that, but meeting the president… that was actually huge. 

“Babe, are you ready?” Keanu called from the bedroom and Taiga gathered some of the hem in her fingers, lifting it so she wouldn’t step on it and walked to the bedroom, her heels clicking to the hardwood floor. 

“Yeah, and I must say, I do feel like a… princess…” she lifted her eyes from her hem and saw something that made her knees feel weak. Keanu was also fully glammed up, his raven hair shone like black silk, his beard was neatly trimmed and he was wearing a full on white tie evening wear with black patent leather shoes, the suit which Ellen had tailored to his measurements and he was making finishing touches to his hand-tied bow. But what caught Taiga’s eyes was the detail on the tails of his tailcoat - the very ends of the tails shifted into royal blue with a hint of sparkle, creating the same kind of gradient effect that she had on her dress. 

When Keanu was finally pleased with his bow, he shifted his eyes on Taiga and he sighed deeply, a loving smile growing on his handsome face. He straightened his back and moved his right arm behind him as he walked towards Taiga, and she could feel herself blushing and she had to shy away from his eyes. Keanu took her hand and he made a slight bow, lifting her hand so he could plant a soft kiss, barely touching her skin on the back of her hand. 

“You don’t look like a princess, Taiga. You look like a full on Queen, and I am honored to be your cavalier tonight, your Highness.” Keanu spoke softly, looking up into her eyes and Taiga had to wave her hand next to her face for some extra air, letting out a choked laugh. 

“Keep talking like that, prince charming, and I won’t be feeling my legs.” she laughed and Keanu pulled her into a careful hug, trying not to mess her hair or makeup. 

“I mean it, Taiga. This is a big night for me too, although I can’t even begin to think how much this must mean to you.” he spoke and Taiga felt so moved that she had to blink her eyes fast in order to avoid tearing up. 

“Having you experience this with me is a dream come true. And your tails!” Taiga smiled and Keanu did as well, taking a look of his modified tailcoat. 

“Yeah, I thought I’d surprise you and make our evening wear a bit more matching. I hope you don’t mind?” Keanu chuckled and Taiga stepped to hug him again. 

“I absolutely love it.” 

Ten minutes over seven, they arrived at the presidential palace. Even though the doors were heavily guarded, there were a lot of photographers outside waiting for guests to arrive. It was absolutely wild for Taiga to be the one attending the party instead of watching it from the television, rating the evening gowns with her mom or Petra. Keanu rose from the car first, and he helped Taiga out of the car and with joined hands, they walked to the open side entrance of the palace as flashes of the cameras almost seemed blinding. 

Inside, their coats were taken to the cloakroom and Taiga presented their invitation and a pre-filled information card for the TV commentators. The whole entrance hall was buzzing with casual chatter of the other invited guests and Taiga could feel how fast her heart was beating, recognizing so many politicians and other celebrities. Keanu took her hand into his and squeezed softly, getting her attention and she took a deep, calming breath. 

“You will do just fine, sweetheart.” Keanu encouraged her, and Taiga nodded, smiling all excited. Soon an adjutant came to them and directed them among other guests so they could get in the actual line of meeting the presidential couple. Oh God, this was it. The whole country would soon see them walking down the red carpet to meet the president. While their president was known as a very down to earth kind of man, he was still the leader of the republic and Taiga appreciated him greatly. 

As they got closer to the main banquet hall, also known as the Nation hall, the line slowly moving, they heard the live orchestra playing and Taiga’s grip on Keanu’s hand got tighter and she looked up on him, Keanu giving her a warm, reassuring smile. 

“Just remember to breathe.” Keanu leaned in to whisper to her, making her snicker which by some miracle eased her tension a bit. They entered the banquet hall, and Taiga took a deep breath. Here we go. 

In their home village, Petra and Pasi were glued to their couch, both of them holding a sparkling wine glass and both of them tried to spot Taiga and Keanu in the line.

 _“Is that them?! Oh, no, not them… What about-! No…”_ Petra was fidgeting in her seat, almost biting her nails in excitement and drumming the floor with her legs. Pasi was also excited to see her wife’s bestie in TV, and guessing his wife’s reaction, he had his cellphone ready to film, since he thought that Taiga would want to see her reaction later. As Pasi noticed them by the very end of the line, them slowly moving with the line towards the banquet hall, he put his glass down and took his phone, ready to record. 

_“And now, maybe ones of the most awaited guests for the whole evening…”_ the commentator started and Petra let out a deafening scream, slamming her glass to the couch table and frantically waving her hands she sniffled, tearing up. Pasi chuckled as he filmed her, but also watched them walking down the red carpet to meet the president. 

_“Oh my fucking God they look so goooooood!”_ Petra cried and grabbed a tissue. Taiga’s dogs were staying the night with them, and Raivo looked at Petra thanks for her scream, his brown eyes almost scolding her for making such a ruckus, and Petra petted his blonde head, lifting the little dog just a tiny bit. 

_“Look, mommy is on TV!”_ Petra laughed, and Raivo answered with a bored grunt. 

_“… the author of the internationally successful Darkland book series which is being filmed into a TV series, Taiga Annika Kelo and with her one of the four main stars of the filming, Canadian actor from Hollywood, Los Angeles, Keanu Charles Reeves. Reeves has featured in many successful box office hits, the newest ones being the John Wick -action movie saga.”_ the commentators continued, commenting on her beautiful dress and both Pasi and Petra stayed silent as they watched first Taiga shaking hands with the president, with a small curtsey and then with his wife. 

_“Oh my God look at their clothes, they match! Oh my Goooood!”_ Petra sniffled again and blew her nose, sounding like a small cartoon elephant. 

As Keanu shook hands with them, he made a slight bow and kept his left hand behind his back and Taiga waited as he greeted the honorable hosts. Keanu walked next to her and they joined hands, the sound of camera shutters and flashes going off as the licensed photographers inside the room were filling their memory cards with pictures of them as they walked the red carpet, disappearing into the dining hall. 

_“Yeeeeeaaaahhh!”_ Petra and Pasi both applauded and took their glasses, Petra still sniffling and they toasted with their sparkling wine. 

In the palace dining hall, Taiga let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding, relieved chuckle escaping from her lips. 

“Oh my God, we did it. We survived the most nerve wracking part of the whole party.” Taiga laughed, showing him how her hands still shook from the suspense and Keanu was beaming. 

“You were absolutely charming, my dear. I hope I was polite enough.” he pushed his fingers into his hair, brushing them better off his face, realizing only then that his hands were a bit shaky as well. 

“There’s no doubt about that. You are the perfect gentleman.” Taiga smiled adoringly, but the boyish grin on Keanu’s lips made her arch her brow. 

“What?” she asked, and as an answer, she felt Keanu pinch her butt through her dress and he giggled like a little boy, his giggle turning into a proper laugh as Taiga slapped him to the arm with the small clutch evening bag, trying not to laugh herself, looking around if anybody saw. 

“Behave yourself, Mr. Reeves!” Taiga snickered through her teeth and chuckling, Keanu offered her arm to her. 

“I will, I will. To a point, at least.” he grinned and Taiga wrapped her arm around his as they walked to check out all the amazing foods and snacks in the dining hall. And finally, Taiga would be able to try the legendary presidential palace punch! 

After all the guests were in the palace, the last guests always being the former presidents. After that, it was time for the traditional picture of the presidents. Keanu and Taiga had found their way to the upper balcony where they could look down to the main banquet hall, and as Taiga saw a group of university choir men and women walked into the hall, she lifted her hand over her chest, trying to steel herself. They were about to sing the Finlandia hymn for the presidents. 

Everyone in the hall fell absolutely silent, and the choir started to sing. Just hearing the iconic first words caused Taiga to have goosebumps, and she had to swallow harshly. The choir was conducted amazingly, first by an older woman and then the second part by a younger man, and as their voices rose up in volume as the song reached its most moving part, Taiga could feel her eyes watering and her lower lip trembling. It was hands down one of the most beautiful things she had ever heard. 

She felt how Keanu wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him, his free hand reaching for hers, and with teary eyes, she looked up and let out a moved sigh. The look in his deep brown eyes was soft as he planted a quick kiss on her forehead, keeping her close to him for the rest of the song. After the choir finished, everyone applauded. After that, it was time for guests to mingle and enjoy the divine offerings of the dining hall. 

After a magical evening of meeting some familiar faces, some of her actual idols and dancing a waltz with Keanu, Taiga was absolutely over the moon. The most memorable moment was when an actual war veteran wanted to meet her thanks to her Darkland series, and he nearly broke her heart by wishing to live long enough to see the filmed version air on TV. 

They left the presidential palace before nine, and decided to stay at the after parties at least for a while. Taiga was having the time of her life and Keanu was enjoying as well. At the after party, people were more forward when it came to meeting Keanu and again, both of them were happy to pose in pictures people wanted to take with them. After couple of hours, Taiga didn’t even know how many glasses of sparkling wine she had downed, but her yawn told her that quite enough. 

“Is my Queen getting tired?” Keanu asked and Taiga nodded her head. 

“Who knew that partying with the cream of the society would be so tiring?” she smiled wearily and covered her mouth for another yawn. 

“Well, good thing we have a room just upstairs. I think I’m totally ready to be alone with you for the rest of the night.” Keanu caressed her face with his hand and leaned to give her a gentle kiss. 

“Sounds reeeally good. My heels are killing me.” Taiga chuckled and Keanu wrapped her hand around her waist again, keeping her close as they left the after party and disappeared into their suite. In the suite, they helped each others undress their evening wear and Taiga had to struggle with her hair extensions, but after she managed to take them off, she took a quick shower, and the feeling of laying absolutely naked and shower fresh between the luxurious sheets of the king bed they shared was sublime. 

Keanu took a shower as well and joined her, opening his arms to her as Taiga moved closer and they both let out a sigh of content. The party had been a huge success on their part, and Taiga’s face almost hurt from smiling so much. She lifted her head as she felt Keanu’s hand gently lifting it, and she watched his handsome face through her lashes, tired smile on her lips. 

“Tonight was the most magical day of my life, thanks to you.” Taiga murmured, and Keanu kissed her again. 

“You invited me with you, so I should be thanking you, my Queen.” he smirked and Taiga let out a soft giggle. 

“Your Queen is not wearing any makeup and is dead tired.” she closed her eyes and Keanu kissed her forehead. 

“That’s when you’re most beautiful to me. Sauna or shower fresh, naked next to me. Bare and real.” Keanu’s voice got more silent and he had also closed his eyes, his fingers playing with her towel damp hair. Taiga inhaled his scent deep into her and nuzzled more closer, kissing his neck. 

“I’mgonnapassout…” she murmured again and Keanu moved to steal one last kiss from her lips. 

“Sweet dreams, darling.” he whispered, and had to do the biggest gulp in his life so he wouldn’t slip the three little words out just yet, even though his whole being was screaming for it. In his mind though, he could say them.

I love you.

\--

If ANYONE wants to hear the Finlandia hymn sung by the choir, here's a link to it (skip to 3:20 to hear the singing). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtT02r6CAAI


	6. Chapter 6

During the first weeks of December Taiga spent her days on set like normally, but in the middle of the month, she started to feel the approaching christmas breath on the back of her neck. It was one of her favourite holidays after all and now that Keanu had decided to spend it with her in Finland, she wanted to make it extra special. Also, Taiga helped her mother with her house chores as well, since they were going to gather at her house at christmas eve. Even the older one of her two older brothers was coming to visit them all the way from Rovaniemi, which was in central Lapland. 

While her older brother, Jari, who also lived close by their mom usually took care of the christmas meal fishes and game meat dishes; cold smoked salmon, salted salmon (or grav lax), salted whitefish, vendace roe, salted moose meat, deer sausages… you named it. Their uncle hunted all year round, so local moose meat was a regularity in their freezers anyway. Jari also took care of the christmas ham, since he usually got a huge pig shank as a present from his boss, it was big enough to share with everyone. Taiga had snagged the chore of making the traditional casseroles from her mother so she wouldn’t have to do so much, leaving her only the moose meatballs and macaroni casserole.

One night in Taiga’s living room, Keanu was re-reading the parts of the script which would be filmed after the christmas break, but the silent humming and cheerful singing made him smile and distract himself from the script. Also, the house was filled with absolutely mouthwatering scents, coming from the cooking casseroles in the oven. Keanu put the script down and sneaked his way to the kitchen door, so he could spy on Taiga a bit, his smile widening even more. She had decorated her house with candles and christmas lights, she had a white and red poinsettia on her kitchen table and she was silently singing as she was mixing the last ingredients for the sweet potato casserole together. 

“‘Cause I have been so good, so good this year-” she hummed the part she couldn’t remember the words to. “He’s all I want and a big red bow! Santa, can you hear me? I have been so good this year and all I want is one thing, tell me my true love is near! He’s all I want, just for me, underneath my Christmas tree, I’ll be waiting here - Santa, that’s my only wish this year…”

Okay, maybe, just maybe Keanu didn’t expect her to sing a christmas song from Britney Spears, making a decent imitation of her voice while singing it. Her dogs were being her assistant chefs, but when Torsti noticed Keanu, the younger chinese crested sprinted towards him and started to jump against Keanu’s legs, making him chuckle - for some reason Torsti had taken a huge liking to him, while Raivo remained a total mommy’s boy. 

“Hey buddy, come here!” Keanu crouched to pick Torsti up in his arms and Taiga was trying her best to pout, just managing to look darn cute. 

“Were you secretly listening on me, mister?” she crossed her arms over her chest, looking even more adorable while holding a metallic whisk and being dressed only in her black, sparkly leggings, her pink woolen socks and in her Satanic Warmaster t-shirt. Her black hair was on a messy bun and her face was free of make up, and Keanu could only sigh with adornment, invisible hearts popping all over his head again. 

“Who, me? Naaah, I just wanted to see my bestest buddy!” Keanu smirked playfully and turned his eyes on Torsti, who even on his arms wagged his tail and pushed his little muzzle into Keanu’s beard, sniffing it loudly and making Keanu giggle, which made Taiga smile widely. She bent down to scoop Raivo to her arms and she padded closer, the dogs sniffing now each others in a way like “hey, we’re both held up, yay!”.

“Torsti has really become your boy, you know. There are only two people in the world he gives puppy kisses, my mom and you.” Taiga smiled, her head slightly tilted and like on cue, Torsti turned his head to Keanu and gave him the tiniest lick on the tip of his nose. 

“Aaaww! Is that so, little buddy, huh? You only kiss grandma and me?” Keanu baby talked to the dog and scratched it’s chest, it’s eyes becoming even more relaxed that they already were and it smacked it’s mouth a couple of times, which both of his dogs tended to do when they were reeeeal content. 

“Don’t worry though, I can kiss mommy for you, okay?” Keanu asked, and Torsti let out a deep sigh, making both of them laugh. 

“That was a clear yes to me.” Keanu smiled and they both let the dogs back on the floor, Taiga pecking Keanu with a quick kiss before turning back to finish the casserole. 

“It smells amazing here. What goodies have you already done?” Keanu lifted his eyes to the several already cooked, store bought single use casserole boxes made of tin. 

“Ummm, those first three are carrot casseroles, those two are potato, the ones in the oven are made from turnips -my personal favourite- and these two are sweet potato.” Taiga smiled as she carefully poured the mixture to two well buttered tin boxes. Then she sprinkled an even layer of breadcrumbs over both of them and made small decorative pattern with a tip of a tablespoon on the surface. Keanu watched and carefully not to disturb her wrapped his arms around her waist and placed his chin on her shoulder.

“Not to be rude, but their consistency looks like baby food.” Keanu murmured and Taiga snickered.

“I know, but hey, it’s traditional and they taste amazing despite being all… mushy.” 

“Speaking o f christmas stuff…” Keanu kissed her neck and Taiga smiled for the shivers it caused her. 

“Do we buy each other presents?” he asked and Taiga hummed. 

“Well, I don’t see why not. I just want a price range.” she spoke and Keanu continued to kiss her skin, humming curiously, asking her to continue. 

“Something like… 50 euros. Which is about the same in bucks.” 

Keanu stopped and frowned, spinning Taiga to face him, his dark brown arching up. 

“50 bucks, seriously?” he asked and Taiga shrugged. 

“Well yeah, it sounds decent. What sum were you thinking?” Taiga blinked her eyes, and as a deep blush crept onto Keanu’s cheeks, Taiga chuckled and wrapped her left arm around Keanu’s neck, her right hand drawing random patterns on his t-shirt covered chest. 

“Ohh, did Mister Moneybags think of a sum much higher than that, hmm~?” she purred, teasing him and made Keanu giggle. For some reason that pet name reminded him of a male version of Miss Moneypenny. 

“Maaaybe.” he smiled and wrapped his arms better around her, batting his eyelashes at her and making her laugh. 

“Alright then. 60 euros. And there’s nothing you can do to make the sum rise higher.” Taiga said, and hearing her words, Keanu’s smile turned into a filthy grin and Taiga could see how his eyes grew darker, making her gulp. Uh oh. 

“Nothing?” Keanu breathed, pushing Taiga against her kitchen counter and capturing her mouth in a heated kiss, his hands slipping under her t-shirt and straight to her braless breasts, causing her to whimper into the kiss. His fingers teased her nipples while his hands groped her breasts and their kisses turned dirtier. Soon, Taiga had to break from the kisses for much needed air, Keanu landing his lips and teeth to nip and kiss her neck. 

“Ke-, I-… fuck!” she whimpered as his left hand traveled down on her body and pressed against her core over her leggings, rubbing it through the smooth fabric. 

“I can’t-, the, the foods, the oven, I-!” her mind was fuzzy with the sudden rush of endorphins and Keanu knew what she was trying to say and he didn’t want her hard work to go to waste. His left hand took hers and placed it on his sweatpants, right over his rock hard cock, making her gasp. 

“Come find us when you’re ready to discuss more…” he almost moaned into her ear, sounding way too lustful on purpose, nipped her ear lobe and with a wide grin, left her in the kitchen. Taiga was panting, mouth agape as he stared after Keanu, hearing how her bedroom door opened and closed. She felt her legs shake and with determination, she took out the casseroles from the oven, put the last two in and put a timer on her phone for 45 minutes, stomping towards her bedroom with her phone. 

After very intense 45 minutes, Keanu had to be the one to take the last casseroles out of the oven, since Taiga, for some reason, had troubles feeling her legs. And there was no price range anymore. Whistling cheerfully, Keanu turned the oven off and decided he could now finish the re-reading of the script in bed. Just in case Taiga wanted to discuss about the price range again. 

The day before christmas eve, 23rd day, was supposed to be a full day on the set, but it was interrupted by a total miracle - a snow storm. The whole crew took that as a sign to wrap it up early and before they left, Keanu had presents for each crew member - a very generous gift card for Sokos hotels which they could use all around Finland. Back at Taiga’s place, her big brother brought her a real spruce and like always, they let it dry up in the bathroom so it could be moved to the living room in the morning. 

Before going to sleep, Taiga wished to show one of the favourite christmas calendar shows she knew, about a small marionette horse called [Histamiini](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FeHEYSHeFtmc%3Ft%3D29&t=Njk2ZGVlNDZkNWM5YWYwOGQ1YzE3NTRmYTQ0YWI4NTBjYzZjYzM1OSw3bjFWeGVsQw%3D%3D&b=t%3AGcGyL_LbAgLmgC6_vKGyXg&p=https%3A%2F%2Ffickensteinn.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189905901108%2Fdarkland-pt-5&m=1), who lived in a barn with a barn elf called Rämäkkä and a witch called Anelma Unelma. Even though Keanu didn’t understand what they were saying, Taiga translated the main plot to him and granted, it was freaking adorable. Not as adorable as the child like sparkle in Taiga’s eyes and the excited smile on her lips. He couldn’t wait to experience a totally different kind of christmas. 

In the morning of 24th, which was the main day of christmas in Finland, Taiga woke up at eight o’clock. She was all smiles from the minute she woke up, planted a kiss on Keanu’s cheek and told him to sleep until she would wake him up for rice porridge. Leaving him to sleep, Taiga put on her sparkling leggings, her bra and a long black tunic with half sleeves, dancing her way to the bathroom. She had already attached the stand to the spruce so it would stand on its own and with a huff, she managed to move it to the living room, on to it’s designated place, over its own round carpet. After that, she turned on the oven and dressed up the dogs and herself a bit more and took them out for their morning walk. 

During last day and night, the landscape had a total makeover - it was no longer dark and depressing, but now they had a winter wonderland. Taiga couldn’t stop smiling even though she knew the snow would melt away within a week with their luck, but at least the christmas eve was white! Living in the south, it felt like an absolute win in the lottery for her. After they came back from the walk, Taiga gave the dogs their breakfast and buttered a porcelain oven dish, the very same one her grandmother used to use for the christmas morning porridge. And naturally, after pouring in the rice, the milk and the pinch of salt, she added one whole almond before placing the dish into the oven. 

While the porridge was cooking, she opened her TV and put it on the right channel. Like every year since 1991, the Santa Claus’s Hotline was airing live. It was a live show for children who could call to Santa’s hotline and speak with him. During the breaks they would show cartoons and other stuff, and like always, it warmed Taiga’s heart to listen to the children talk with Santa, even sing to him, in a world where such child like faith to Santa seemed to be rare now days. At the same time, she was decorating her spruce, turning it to a real christmas tree. Some of the decorations were as old as her, and she took her time placing the ornaments so the tree would look perfect. As a final touch, she turned on the electric lights and the now decorated tree illuminated soft yellowish light at the corner of the living room. 

When the porridge and coffee were ready, Taiga skipped her way to her bed room door, calling her dogs to her. 

“ _Do you wanna go and wake up Keanu?_ ” she asked, making the dogs tilt their heads and as she opened the door, both of them rushed into the room and jumped on the bed, soon to be followed by a low grunt and a chuckle. She giggled as she heard Keanu’s gruffy morning voice wishing the pups merry christmas, calling them his dudes. She was about to walk back into the kitchen, when she stopped on her tracks as he heard Keanu speak. 

“Tell mommy that daddy will come in a minute, okay dudes?” 

Taiga bit her lower lip and she could feel herself blushing, her heart beat rising. Did he just call himself daddy for her dogs? She suppressed the huge urge to just go and kiss him senseless, thinking that maybe Keanu was still half asleep and didn’t even think what he said. Anyway, it made her extremely giddy and the dogs followed her to the kitchen. 

When Keanu stepped out from the bed room and walked the living room, he blinked his eyes as he noticed the fully decorated christmas tree, the santa claus show on the TV and just like yesterday, the house smelled amazing. It smelled like… home. A home Keanu didn’t knew he was still missing in his life. In the kitchen, she found Taiga on her tiptoes trying to reach for a mug on a higher shelf. Keanu stepped next to her, smirking playfully and with ease, took two white mugs with grey reindeer horn prints, gave one to her, and boy, she was beaming. 

She put the mug down and stepped to hug him tightly, nuzzling her face against his chest. Keanu wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back, planting a kiss into her hair. 

“Merry christmas, darling.” he smiled against her hair, breathing in her scent and he could feel her smiling even wider. 

“Hyvää joulua, hani.” she said, and he already opened his mouth, trying to copy her, but the double vowels and especially the double consonants always caused him trouble. Not to mention if the vowels were the scandinavian ones. Hani meant honey, that he knew because they were said exactly the same way. 

“Hy-vee… juulua?” he tried nonetheless, making Taiga giggle and she lifted her eyes to him. 

“Close enough.” she purred and reached to kiss him deeply. 

“Please, help yourself with coffee and porridge. You can spice it with salt, sugar and cinnamon powder to your taste if you wish.” she smiled and humming another christmas song, they proceeded to take breakfast. They ate in the living room, Taiga explaining to Keanu what the santa program was all about, when he bit into something that broke into his mouth. He frowned his brow when he tasted… an almond? Taiga perked up immediately. 

“Oh my gosh, did you get the almond?” she asked and Keanu bit into it more, nodding his head. Yup, he was definitely chewing an almond. 

“Yayyy! I was hoping you would get it, now you’ll have good luck for next year.” Taiga smiled and patted his sweat pant covered knee, making him chuckle. 

“Another tradition?” he asked and it was Taiga’s turn to nod. 

“Uh-huh. Oh, speaking of which, I’ll be right back.” she rose from the couch and padded to to the kitchen and soon made her way towards her sauna downstairs, clearly holding a small bowl inside her hand. She came back and took her plate back. 

“Ah, better. I took some porridge to the sauna elf. He needs to eat before we lit the stove for christmas sauna, so he’s happy and will continue to give us good bathings next year.” she spoke and Keanu let out a small laugh. 

“Are you telling me there is a small dish of porridge in the sauna right now?” he asked and like it was nothing new, Taiga nodded her head with a wide smile on her lips. 

“Holy shit I love this country and it’s traditions.” Keanu sighed and took a long sip of coffee, making Taiga chuckle and tell him more about the traditions that didn’t really translate into modern day, so the ones that did were even more special to her. 

After the breakfast, it was light enough outside so they could together put up an actual sheaf of oats for the birds in to her backyard. Before noon, they took all the casseroles and drove to Taiga’s mother so they would be there ready for the big feast at the evening. At exactly noon, they sat down in her mother’s living room and watched a live feed from the TV how the mayor of Turku spoke the Declaration of Christmas Peace to all of Finland. Yet another annual tradition, without it wouldn’t be christmas. 

It was also a custom to bathe in the sauna before the evening meal, so that’s exactly what they did back in Taiga’s house. And because of, ahem, **_reasons_** , they were almost late from the meal. Taiga hugged her older brother Antti and her wife Heli, and just like with her friends, after the first shock of meeting Keanu, they acted like he was just Taiga’s boyfriend from the US. That also did mean that her big brothers were being their own stupid and goofy selves, making bad puns and dry jokes, which luckily did make Keanu laugh and he soon joined them. Taiga had to translate some puns to their mom since her english wasn’t the best, but it was adorable when she tried to chat as well, trying her very best. 

When Jari started to talk about his tractor pulling hobby, Taiga, Heli and their mother kicked the boys from the kitchen as they started to set the table and warm food up. Soon enough, the kitchen was full of food and the table was set beautifully, the only guest missing being their uncle, their mother’s brother. Upon arriving and meeting Keanu, Taiga smothered her face with her hands when her uncle Erkki asked him with unbeatable finglish, that “weer juu Taigas nyy boifriend, ai heerd juu häv biin in a muuvi or tuu!” Remarkably, Keanu understood him and trying not to crack, he explained that yes, he was her new boyfriend and that he has been in a movie or two. 

During the meal, they did have a conversation both in english and in finnish, Taiga’s uncle being curious of “wat wöörds duu juu nou in finnis?”. Everytime her uncle spoke, it became harder and harder for everyone to keep a straight face, and when Taiga and Jari bursted to laugh, so did the rest of them, her uncle playing dump and supposedly not understanding that the way he spoke english was making them laugh. 

After they all were swell from all the eating, the guys all except her uncle took a cigarette break as Taiga and Heli helped her mom to clean up the kitchen. They all gathered to the living room to wait for the dessert coffee and tiramisu, all trying to digest the huge meal of delicious christmas food and while they continued chatting, another annual TV tradition was airing, Disney’s [From All Of Us To All Of You](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fchristmas-specials.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FFrom_All_of_Us_to_All_of_You&t=MjdjODQ0ZWZmZDU1ZmU4YjA2YjA3OGExNGJmMDk1OWQ3OWJhZTAwNyw3bjFWeGVsQw%3D%3D&b=t%3AGcGyL_LbAgLmgC6_vKGyXg&p=https%3A%2F%2Ffickensteinn.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189905901108%2Fdarkland-pt-5&m=1) animation which seemed to surprise Keanu. He was even more surprised to hear that it had been aired every christmas eve since the late fifties also in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. 

One tradition was a tad more sad if you thought it that way, which was visiting the graveyard after the coffee. The whole graveyard was a sea of lit candles, not a grave was missing, some having at least one candle. Their group disbanded for a while, her mother and uncle taking candles to their parents and grandparents, her brothers visiting a friends grave they lost when they were in high school and perhaps Taiga was lucky enough for just having one grave to visit, her grandparents. She did also lit another candle next to a stone which was surrounded by candles, and that place was for the dear ones buried somewhere else. Their father was buried in Sodankylä, so it was a grave she didn’t get to visit that often, being nearly a thousand kilometers away. The fact that Keanu had joined them had made Taiga’s heart sing louder than ever before. 

Couple of hours later, they had sat with her brothers and took a couple of drinks and it was time to leave home. Arriving to Taiga’s house, the dogs instantly went to bed after a busy night and they put on their comfortable home wear. It had started to snow again and they decided to do some glühwine and enjoy it by the fireplace downstairs. Like always when they put on a fire, the dogs followed them and started to sleep in front of the fire. 

Taiga and Keanu sat on the couch, Taiga being in the nook of his arm, her head resting against his shoulder. Snow was slowly falling outside and the fire was cracking and popping. They were both full of delicious food and had a slight buzz from the glühwein. Keanu had his arm around Taiga’s shoulders, and he could almost bet that she was on a brink of sleeping. No wonder, he was also feeling so, so content in every aspect of his life right now. He looked around in the cozy house, the fire warming them and a woman he had fell in love with in his arms. 

Keanu drank the last drops of his drink and put the mug away, noticing Torsti standing in front of him, wagging his tail. With a grin, he tapped his lap and letting out a small pig like snort, Torsti jumped lightly to his lap, instantly leaning against him and resting his small jaw on his chest. Keanu’s smile grew wider and he reached to plant a small kiss on the little dogs head, scratching it behind its ear.

“You really do seem to like me, huh buddy?” Keanu whispered, and Torsti just watched him with relaxed, squinted eyes, his tail wagging couple of times if almost as an answer to him. Keanu watched as Raivo also jumped on the couch and climbed behind Taiga’s legs which were lifted on the couch, curling up and letting out a content grunt by doing so. He let out a silent chuckle, lowering his gaze first to Taiga, who still had her eyes closed and then back to Torsti. 

“You know what, little buddy boo? I like you two as well, very much.” he continued to whisper, petting Torsti and he watched as the dog blinked his eyes, closing them more with each blink until they were fully closed, and it let out a very content sigh. Keanu’s heart felt like it could burst, and he almost felt like his eyes could tear up soon. 

“Can you keep a secret? I think- no, I know I’m in love with your mommy.” Keanu whispered, and watched how the small dog kept its eyes closed, its breathing being steady. 

He smiled and gently leaned his head against Taiga’s, closing his eyes as well, taking in a deep breath. While he had his siblings and his mother in the US, them and few of his closest friends forming his family in that end of the world, he felt that in that moment, right there, with Taiga and the two silly chinese cresteds, he had found something to cherish with all his might. He wished, with his whole heart, that this could someday be his own family. 

He was often called a man who had everything. He did have a home in Los Angeles, he had a home with his siblings and his mother, but he didn’t have a home for his heart. He had traveled all around the world so many times he had lost count, and some in some places, he had almost found that certain feeling he was longing for. This was different. This moment, right now, in a small country village in southern Finland, made him wish he never had to leave. 

His heart had found a home.


	7. Chapter 7

Taiga had a bad habit of hitting the snooze when she knew she didn’t have any plans for the next day. So when her alarm went off at 9 am, she swiped it off, stretched her naked body and turned on to her other side, facing Keanu, letting out a purring sigh. Keanu opened his eyes and with heavy lids, watched how Taiga instantly fell back to sleep with the cutest little smile on her lips. After just watching her for a moment, he turned to his back and took his phone, swiping it open and went through his emails quickly. Seeing an email from a very certain place telling him that his booking was now verified, everything was set for Taiga’s christmas present.

Keanu stretched his body as well, heard his back pop, and he felt his body asking for some exercise. Taking another glance at his sleeping beauty, he smiled and taking his phone, rose from the bed. After finding him some suitable clothing for something outdoorsy, he quietly left the bedroom and walked to the kitchen to check the temperature. It was still pitch black outside and meter outside the window was down to minus seven degrees. Hearing almost a meow like yawn behind him, he turned to see Torsti stretching his tiny body and wagging his tail like he always did. Keanu crouched and Torsti padded to him, his nails making a sound as they hit the floor. 

“Good morning, buddy.” he whispered and petted the light grey skin of the semi hairless dog. Hmm, he could dress the guys appropriately and take them for a long walk. They would most likely enjoy it and Keanu would get his exercise as well. He had joined Taiga many times for the evening walks and she had showed him many good routes both by the road and some which were more in the forest and thus more private. Yeah, that would mean that Taiga could continue sleeping. And maybe after the walk, he could surprise her and make pancakes. 

“What do you say if we would go for a walk, huh buddy?” Keanu asked, and while Torsti did perk up his heterochromic eyes (his left eye was ice blue and right was brown) to him, Keanu wasn’t sure if he understood him. He frowned his brow as he tried to remember the word Taiga always used and made the dogs beeline straight to the door. 

“Lenkki?” he said, and immediately he heard how Raivo jumped down from the couch in the living room and scurried his way to the kitchen, now both dogs staring at him, like waiting for him to stay it again. 

“Should weee…” Keanu started playfully, and both dogs tilted their heads. “… go to a lenkki?”

Raivo let out an high pitched whine, prancing around all excited and Torsti started to jump against Keanu, causing him to chuckle. 

“Alright, alright! Let’s go then, lenkki!” he stood up and followed the dogs to the front door. 

He had seen many, many times how Taiga dressed the dogs, and often he helped her. She told him that after minus five degrees they should be dressed with their wool overalls and put on their shoes, or else their paws would get too cold and have frost bites on their paw pads. Keanu had seen Taiga dress the dogs up even like that, and it reminded him like dressing up an infant who could barely stand. So, with a determined huff, he sat down and took the wool clothes and the cutest pairs of mini shoes he had seen in a while. Thank goodness both of the dogs stood absolutely still while Keanu did his best to dress them. After only a few minutes, he had two decently dressed chinese cresteds on their flexi leashes and they were ready to go. 

Even though the dogs were small, they kept up a nice pace and Keanu got his heart rate up. Of course once in a while, the dogs stopped to sniff around or do their business, but those small breaks Keanu used to admire the snow covered landscape as the morning was getting brighter. Since it wasn’t windy, it the air didn’t feel so cold and the dogs seemed to stay warm as well. Also, he couldn’t help but chuckle by himself every now and then, because the pups looked so ridiculously cute in their overalls and small dog shoes, pat pat patting away with not a care in the world, tails wagging. 

An hour and 20 minutes later, Keanu and the dogs returned just like always, as soon as he got the clothes and shoes off the dogs they ran around the flat like crazy, and after he got rid of his own warm winter clothes they followed him to the kitchen by his heels. Like after every walk, the dogs got a small dog biscuits and both of the pups zoomed to the living room with the treats in their mouths. Well, let’s see if he still remembered the best pancake recipe his sister taught him a few years ago… 

In bed, when Taiga woke up to the soft little kisses planted on her forehead, she couldn’t help but to smile and hum contently, feeling Keanu brushing her hair with his fingers. 

“Morning, sleepyhead.” Keanu purred and kissed her forehead again, chuckling as Taiga shuffled closer to him and wrapped her arm and leg around him, not caring that he was fully clothed and she was naked. Her body was so warm and smooth as Keanu slipped his hand under her duvet to caress her, and in the back of his head the thought of getting rid of his clothes and just joining her was getting louder. 

“I made us breakfast.” he whispered, and Taiga blinked her eyes open, lifting them up to look at him. 

“You-” she covered her mouth, in fear of having a morning breath. “You did?” 

Keanu smiled and tried to move her hand down so he could, meeting some resistance.

“Nooo, I have a sleepy skunk in my mouth.” Taiga protested and they both let out soft a laugh.

“Well, maybe you should wash it off with coffee and pancakes.” he wiggled his eyebrow, making Taiga giggle and she blinked her eyes.

“You made pancakes? That’s so cute!” she smiled and Keanu shrugged his shoulder. 

“You told me you’ve never had decent american pancakes, so since I woke up earlier I thought I’d make some. ” he spoke and let Taiga push him to lean on the pillows as she climbed onto him, duvet still covering most of her body, but having her naked on top of him did have an… effect. 

“And here I thought I could’ve spoken you to get naked as well and join me for some morning activities…” she purred, watching Keanu through her lashes and he gulped heavily, both of his hands caressing her body up and down and he could practically hear his body screaming to have her. 

“… but. Since you made us breakfast, I don’t want them to get cold. Besides, I need to walk the dogs.” Taiga flashed him a teasing smile, sliding off of his body, letting her hand brush by his crotch, by total accident of course. It made him grunt and he discreetly adjusted himself as he watched Taiga dressing up in her home wear. 

“Don’t you worry about the dudes, we already had a nice long walk.” Keanu grinned and Taiga looked at him with a delighted smile. 

“Really?! You dressed them and all?” she smiled wide and Keanu nodded, feeling proud of himself, even if it was such a small thing.

“Yup, overalls, shoes and everything.” 

Taiga padded her way to him and leaned to give him a big smooch on the lips, and Keanu rose to sit so they could hug. 

“You’re becoming such a chinese crested daddy, you realize that, right?” Taiga’s fingers played with his hair and he could feel a flush of pink rising on his cheeks.

“I don’t mind. They’re the bestest little dudes.” he spoke softly, looking into Taiga’s eyes and his heart seemed to grow larger by a size or two. 

“I don’t mind it either, and I bet neither do they.”

During the breakfast, Taiga seemed to remember something - they didn’t exchange christmas presents last night, like it was more custom in Finland! Keanu had a mysterious twinkle in his eyes when he explained that Taiga would have to wait a few days before her christmas present, and despite her tries, Keanu didn’t give any clues to her. She, however, could give her present to him immediately. 

“I didn’t wrap these, since I hope you’ll like them and use them right away.” She held something against her chest. Something black and wooly. 

“Since this is an old house, and my floors are a tad cold…” Taiga smiled shyly, and handed him a neatly folded pair of self made, black woolen socks. Keanu blinked his eyes when he noticed they had red decorations and he folded them open, letting out a delighted laugh. On the right sock the outer side had a cross stitched KRGT-1 and left sock outer side had also cross stitched ARCH lettering. Keanu had noticed that sometimes during shootings, Taiga was knitting something when she wasn’t needed and apparently, it was these. 

“Taiga, I… I love - them. I absolutely love them!” Keanu smiled so widely, genuinely happy and touched by his present that it made Taiga let out a small squeal and she bounced on where she stood. 

“Please, try them! I wanna see if I guessed your size right.” 

With childlike excitement, Keanu leaned forward and put the socks on, and what she could see, they seemed to be perfect fit. 

“Oh wow, they start to warm my feet right away. And yeah, they fit perfectly.” he smiled and grabbed Taiga to a tight hug, lifting her off the floor and causing her to giggle. 

“Kiitos, Taiga.” Keanu hummed and the fact that he thank her in Finnish made her all giddy and blushing again as she hugged him back. 

“You’re very welcome, hani.” 

***

The closer the they got to new years eve, the more she got invitations to a bunch of different parties. In fact, more than she had ever gotten during her life as a “known person” in Finland. Naturally, the invitation was for her and Keanu, and some invitations nearly reeked of just wanting to get them there for the celebrity value. Good thing that she could RSVP to all of them that they couldn’t participate since they had other plans already - the new years eve party that Petra and Pasi always held at their home with lot’s of their mutual friends. As soon as Taiga had mentioned that they were throwing a party as well, Keanu wanted them to attend, saying “Of course we’ll go to your best friend’s party!”. The fact the he really liked her friends made her even more in love with him than she already was. 

At six pm, last night of the year, they arrived at their place, with Taiga’s dogs. While Raivo didn’t care about the new years eve rockets, Torsti had some anxiety about them but being at a party surrounded by familiar people seemed to ease his mind, not hearing the explosions over the chatting and the music. A lot of the parties they threw among their friends were a bring-a-dish parties, where everyone assisted the hosts by bringing something. Not so surprisingly, Petra had asked Taiga for her famous cloud berry cheesecake, and she was more than happy to do it, and Keanu insisted on buying some champagne. 

Most of their mutual friends had already met Keanu, so there was no “omg we have a famous actor here” mentality left at all anymore. Like her brothers, they treated him like an ordinary guy, which might’ve been one of the reasons he wanted to attend this party over all the high end glitz and glam parties at Helsinki. And when Keanu was present, people didn’t even think of it, they just automatically started to speak in english, even though Keanu had said many times that they wouldn’t have to just because of him, that he liked listening to finnish being spoken. But still, her friends just… did it. It was such a natural thing to do. 

“Hey heeey! Welcome you two, please come in!” Petra took the cake tray from Taiga and they stepped in, Taiga letting the dogs off their collars once the door was shut behind them. She was wearing the same sparkly dress which she wore at the pre-christmas party and same glitter stockings, while Keanu had his black wax finished jeans he knew Taiga loved on him and shockingly, a brand new black and red Arch t-shirt. This wasn’t their first time at Petra and Pasi’s, they had spent a couple of nights there sauna bathing and having a few drinks, and they had always had a blast. They followed Petra to their kitchen and already their kitchen table was full of delicious stuff that Petra had prepared and Pasi came to hug them both. 

“Terve, Keke!” Pasi sneered as the men hugged and Keanu let out a laugh at the nickname Pasi had given him, calling it his Finnish name. 

“Terve, Pasi!” he answered, rolling the r in the greeting like a pro, Pasi lifting his brows all impressed. 

“You sound more and more Finnish each time we meet!” Pasi smiled and Petra giggled as she made room in their fridge for Taiga’s cheesecake. 

“Watch out, we’ll make a Finn out of you!” she warned and Taiga giggled as well. 

“Learning one of the most difficult languages in the world would only mean that I would sound like I’m speaking some sacred elven tongue, so that’s fine by me!” Keanu chuckled and Taiga handed him an opened Corona beer with a smile. 

“When you start saying vittu instead of fuck, then you know you’re in deep.” Pasi took a swig of his own beer and as the doorbell rang, excused himself to answer the door for more guests. Petra was doing something mysterious and soon turned around with a tray full of shot glasses, having light creamy liquid and whipped cream in them. 

“Ta-dah! Welcome shots!” she smiled and Taiga took one of the shot glasses. 

“What on earth is in these?” Taiga asked and Petra put the tray down after Keanu had took one for himself, taking one shot glass for herself as well. 

“Fireball cinnamon whiskey, cream soda and whipped cream. They taste exactly like cinnamon buns! Cheers!” Petra explained and they all chugged down the shot, and indeed, it felt like a boozy cinnamon bun had exploded in their mouths. 

“Wow!” Keanu exclaimed and Petra giggled. 

“Told you!” she took the tray and followed Pasi to take their new guests in as well. 

“Remind me not to take another one of those, they have a aftertaste for a hangover of a lifetime…” Taiga murmured, Keanu snickering. 

“I might have to ask for another, that was mind blowing.” 

“I won’t be holding your hair when you puke your brains out in the morning, dear.” Taiga sneered and Keanu huffed, trying to sound like he was offended. 

“Are you implying that I can’t hold my alcohol?” Keanu grinned, wrapping his arm around Taiga and pulled her close to him. 

“I know you can hold your alcohol, but too many of those is still a death wish.” Taiga grinned back and took a sip of her cranberry long drink, before turning to greet their friends who just arrived as well. 

During the evening, more people arrived at the party and they had enough delicious food to feed a small army; different pies, couple of self made pizzas, different tapas pieces, a cheese plate with crackers, macrons, profiteroles, and of course, Taiga’s cloud berry cheesecake. In the TV room people were playing a quiz game Knowledge Is Power on PS4 and their phones, in the living room was an exciting game of Labyrinth and in the kitchen some people were gathered around the table to feast and chat. 

Taiga was having a blast, but what brought her the most joy was seeing how much Keanu was enjoying himself as well. He was smiling nearly, his eyes twinkling and he chatted cheerfully with everybody like he had known them for years. All the time when he was close to Taiga, he was touching her; holding her hand, wrapping his arm around her shoulders or waist, hugging and kissing her without any restrain. Taiga had never felt like she was this full of love, her whole being beaming with it as she kissed some whipped cream off of Keanu’s mustache after another cinnamon bun shot. 

When the big moment drew closer, all the guests gathered at their backyard to wait the year and the decade to change. Everyone had a glass of sparkling wine ready and some were holding a sparkler, ready to lit it. They were lucky enough to have a absolutely star bright night, and Taiga was smiling as she was looking out for her favorite constellation. 

“There. The Big Dipper, or as we say, Otava.” she pointed towards it, and Keanu noticed the familiar star pattern. 

“It’s one of my favorites too. I guess I don’t really have a favorite, except… There, Orion’s Belt.” he pointed a tad more to the right, and Taiga nodded as she saw it as well. 

“Orionin Vyö. It’s beautiful.” she smiled and Keanu gave her a playful grin. 

“You’re beautiful.” he teased lightheartedly and Taiga bumped him with her pelvis. 

“30 seconds!” Pasi exclaimed and Taiga took Keanu’s hand into her own, intertwining their fingers. He looked down at their joined hands and smiled, lifting his eyes on Taiga. She was… oh God. He didn’t even know the words anymore. There were no words beautiful enough in this world to describe what he was feeling for her. Well, maybe there were. 

_“Here we go, people! 10, 9, 8…”_ Pasi started the countdown and everyone joined him, except Taiga who was too enchanted about the look in Keanu’s eyes. She let go of his hand when he started to move it to her face, placing it gently to her cheek, and she could feel herself blushing.

 _“… 7, 6, 5…”_ Keanu stepped closer and he seemed to move almost like in slow motion as he leaned down to kiss her, and Taiga already closed her eyes. 

_“…4, 3, 2, 1!”_ Taiga felt Keanu’s lips and hot breath brush against her lips, and just before he kissed her, he let out a deep whisper.

“I love you.” 

The world around Taiga literally exploded - her friends cheered and shouted as loud as they could, shouting happy new year and litting up the sparklers and fireworks filled the sky. She grabbed Keanu’s coat with her free hand and pulled him even closer to her, kissing him back with a burning passion, feeling her eyes tear up. Right after the kiss, Taiga whipped her head back and let out a scream, some of her friends letting out a scream as well - it was good to make a lot of noise during the first minute of the new year, to scare all the bad spirits away. Keanu chuckled and let out a coarse shout as well to the sky that was still flashing and sparkling, and Taiga couldn’t hold in a laughter, pulling Keanu closer. 

“I love you too!” Taiga laughed, sniffling and a pair of tears fell to her cheeks. Keanu wiped the tears away with his hands and smiling, they finally toasted for the new year. 

When everybody got back inside, Pasi being the first one to enter the house, since the first to enter the house in a new year should always be a man (the tradition doesn’t tell why, but it brings good luck!), the partying continued. Some started to dance in the living room, some went to eat and in the TV room people were watching music videos from Youtube. Keanu and Taiga however left outside since Keanu needed a smoke, and Taiga needed to calm herself and her burning cheeks down. She was giggling and shying away from his gaze, which made Keanu chuckle and he did the same thing when they first met. He bent his knees enough to catch her eyes. 

“There you are.” he repeated the words from that night and with an endearing laugh, Taiga moved to kiss him. 

“I feel like I could fly.” Taiga snickered, and Keanu lifted his eyebrow. 

“Well, something tells me you might be flying soon…” he said mysteriously and Taiga pouted her lips. 

“What was that supposed to mean? Unless you were flirting and I’m drunk enough not to get it.” and like on cue, a small hiccup escaped from her lips, making them both laugh. 

“Eeh, it could be flirting as well, buuut…” Keanu put the cigarette out in an ashtray and snagged Taiga into his arms and leaned down to murmur to her ear:

“In two days, we’re flying to Lapland, baby. Merry Christmas.” 

When Taiga heard him, her eyes grew wider and she stepped back just so she could look at him, and his excited smile told it all. He had bought them a trip to Lapland as her christmas present.

“What, really?! W-when, I mean, where are we staying?” she stuttered a bit as she was absolutely surprised. Just as Keanu had wanted. 

“Our flight is on thursday, babe. It’s a private resort in the middle of nature, called [Octola](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Foctola.com%2F&t=Y2FlOGJmN2NjMGU1Mzk4NGJhZmY5MDVkOTBhMDU4MWY1Mzc2ZjNkYyxCN0ptUVJENA%3D%3D&b=t%3AGcGyL_LbAgLmgC6_vKGyXg&p=https%3A%2F%2Ffickensteinn.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F190041595408%2Fdarkland-pt-6&m=1). I maybe got a little carried away since I rented the whole place just for us, and- Taiga?” Keanu let out a laugh after he noticed that Taiga was staring at him with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open and after she blinked a couple of times she actually looked like she could faint. 

“I-, I think I’m gonna faint.” she sighed and she could feel her legs betraying her. Luckily, she was already steadily in Keanu’s arms. 

“Hey, darling, breathe. Breathe for me, okay?” He chuckled but his brow was frowned with concern. Taiga took in a deep breath and held it in for a while before letting it out.

“Octola. Holy fucking shit, Octola.” she repeated. “It’s like my version of heaven on earth.” 

“I remember. That one night when you told me about your childhood home and things about Lapland in general, I remember you mentioning Octola. Like I said - merry christmas, baby.” Keanu rested his forehead against Taiga’s and she let out a soft laugh. 

“And all I gave you was woolen socks.” she giggled, and Keanu kissed her, cupping her face. 

“Which I love from the bottom of my heart, Taiga. Just like you.” he spoke and Taiga had to fight not to shy away from his warm eyes again. Then, she realized something. 

“Oh, but what about the-”

“Dogs? Petra and Pasi almost insisted on taking them.” Keanu answered and Taiga sighed again, smiling - of course those two knew about this and wanted to surprise her as well. 

“Come on, let’s go inside. You’re out of drink and I maybe need to have a fourth cinnamon bun shot.” Keanu grinned and made Taiga laugh. 

Could it be thursday already?


End file.
